LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

(SBptp.....-.,. ©opgrtgfct Tfa 

Shelf ..,-.B.7„ 

UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



r 



THE 



Union of the Churches 



BY JOHN H. BRUNNER, D. D., 

Member Holston Conference, M. E. Church, South; President 
Hiwassee College, East Tennessee ; Author of 
"Sunday Evening Talks," Etc. 




SOLD BY THE AUTHOR, 
HIWASSEE COLLEGE, EAST TENNESSEE. 



PtTIIvIvIFB & HUNT, 

805 Broadway, New York. 

Boston : 38 Bromfield Street. I Buffalo : 2S8 Main Street. 

Pittsburg : 525 Smithfield Street. | San Francisco : 1041 Market Street. 
Detroit : 189 Woodward Avenue. 



CRANSTON & STOWE, 
190 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati. 
Chicago: 57 Washington Street. | St. Louis: 1101 Olive Street. 



J. W. BURKE & CO., 

Macon, Ga. 



LOGA M D. DAMERON, 
913 Pine Street, St. Louis, Mo. 



Ithy library 
of congress 

WASHINGTON 



copyright secured under style and title of 
".Church: Union 
versus 
Church Schisms." 



c Kpierjds of Jesus ir) Q[zt)zt?qAj 

AND 

Rpicr)ds ^\cll)odisrr) ir) jfapficulai 5 , 

is Earrjesf Erjclceii?©!? 
is 

BY 

©HE pUTHOI^. 





atfcooes* 



" ^he age of separation and division is passing away, 
f and the age of the reunion of divided Chris- 
tendom is beginning to dawn." 

—DR. SCHAFF. 



"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for 
brethren to dwell together in unity." 

—psalm cxxxm. 



Full many a brook, and oft a river, 
Has parted in its onward flow, 

And blent again, with joyous quiver, 
In smiling vale not far below. 



"he Church has nothing to fear from without, 
there rVpeace within." 



—BISHOP McTYEIRE. 



I love thy kingdom, Lord, 

The house of thine abode, 
The Church the blest Redeemer bought 

With his own precious blood. 

If e'er my heart forget 

Her welfare or her woe, 
Let every joy this heart forsake, 

And every grief o'erflow. 

For her my tears shall fall, 

For her my prayers ascend, 
To her my cares and toils be given, 

Till toils and cares shall end. 

-DR. D WIGHT. 



read a legend of a monk, who painted, 
In an old convent cell in days by-gone, 

Pictures of martyrs and of virgins sainted, 

And the sweet Christ face with the crown of thorn. 

Poor daubs ! not fit to be a chapel's treasure ! 

Full many a taunting word upon them fell; 
But the good abbot let him, for his pleasure, 

Adorn with them his solitary cell. 

One night the poor monk mused: " Could I but 
render. 

Honor to Christ as other painters do, 
Were but my skill as great as is the tender 

Love that inspires me when his cross I view! — 

"But no — 't is vain I toil and strive in sorrow; 

What man so scorns still less can he admire, 
My life's work is all valueless — to-morrow 

I'll cast my ill-wrought pictures on the fire." 

He raised his eyes, within his cell — O wonder! 

There stood a visitor — thorn -crowned was he, 
And a sweet voice the silence rent asunder — 

"I scorn no work that's done for love of me." 

And round the walls the paintings shone resplendent 
With lights and colors to this world unknown, 

A perfect beauty, and a hue transcendent, 
That never yet on mortal canvas shone. 

There is a meaning in the strange old story — 

Let none dare judge his brother's worth or need; 

The pure intent gives to the act its glory, 

The noblest purpose makes the grandest deed. 

— Home Journal. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Preliminaries, u 

Overmuch Machinery, 17 

Altar Against Altar, 22 

The O'Kelley Schism, . ... . . 26 

A Small, but Fatal Schism, . . . . .33 

A Rejected Article, 36 

Provision for Reunion, 39 

The Two Niagaras One, ..... 40 

Randolph's Circular, 42 

Notes of a Sermon, 48 

Hints on Episcopacy, 50 

Grand Council of 1844, 54 

Bishop Andrew, ' . 58 

One Who was There, 62 

Motives in the Measure, 68 

Cause of Separation, 72 

Methodism and Slavery, 78 

Early Rule on Slavery, . . . . . 84 
Something Worse Than Separation, . . .100 

Honest Opinions, . . . . . . . 102 

Deep Regrets at Parting, 108 

General Regrets Afterward, . . . . 114 
How it Looks to an Englishman, . . . .121 

A Veteran's View, . 125 

Personal, 126 

The Press, 129 

Difficulties of Reunion, 130 



8 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Free Circulation Needed, 132 

General Grant's View, . . . . . .134 

Some Facts and Figures, . ... 137 

Want of Charity, . 144 

Border Work a War, 152 

Border Pictures, 161 

Another Picture, Very Ugly, . . . . 168 

Another "Border" Picture, 178 

The Book Business, 179 

Methodism and the Negroes, 190 

Wonderful Result, . . . . . . . 203 

Blessing Old Africa, 204 

"Race Prejudice/' . . . . . . . 206 

Our African Brethren, 210 

Methodist Protestants, 213 

Methodist Protestant Scheme, . . . .215 

"Circumstances Alter Cases," .... 224 

Just So ! . . 227 

The Cape May Commission, 228 

Some Good Reading, . 230 

A Voice from the Wilderness, .... 236 

Judah Vexing Ephraim, ...... 239 

Bishop Foster's Sermon, 249 

A United Methodist Church, 253 

A Centennial Voice, 256 

A Touching Incident, . . . . . . 257 

Lights Along the Shore, . . .: . . 258 

"Christian Union Church," 260 

Alienations, 262 

Presbyterian Union, 265 

Minor Matters 266 

A Worthy Woman 269 



CONTENTS. 9 

PAGE. 

Canadian Methodism, 273 

Three May Be One, . 274 

Whitefield and Wesley, 279 

Tinkering, 283 

The Two Lines of Policy, 285 

Pliability of Methodism, 296 

One Breach Healed, 299 

A Methodist Congress, . . . . . 303 

Fraternity and Union, . = 304 

— — •«« 

APPENDIX. 

I. The Finley Resolution, 1844, . . . .311 

II. The Capers Paper, 1844, . . . 311 

III. The Southern Declaration, 1844, • • • 3H 

IV. The Plan of Separation, 1844, . . . 314 

V. The Louisville Resolutions, 1845, • • • 3 r 9 

VI. The Pittsburg Resolutions, 1848, . . 320 

VII. The Supreme Court Decision, 1854, . . 322 
VIII. Report on Fraternity, 1874, . . . 335 

IX. Cape May Report, 1876, . . . .348 

X. Population North and South, 1880, . . 359 

XL Book Business, 360 



The Union of the Churches. 



PRELIMINARIES. 

My mission is mainly to Methodists. God 
bless all others who feel an interest in our 
troubles and triumphs ! 

Not every Church division is a schism or 
a sin. But every schism is fraught with evils, 
and ought to be prevented, if possible. 
Wherever schism be found to exist, every 
prudent means should be employed to weaken 
its violence, arrest its further spread, and to 
restore its victims to a healthy or normal 
state. How striking the solicitous words of 
Paul to his flock: "That there should be no 
schism in the body ; but that the members 
should have the same care one for another. 
And whether one member suffer, all the 
members suffer with it ; or one member be 
honored, all the members rejoice with it." 

" No man liveth to himself." So is it with 
denominations. Even outsiders are inter- 
ested in the peace of Churches, as well as 
of nations. We write for the good of all, 



12 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



but deal mainly with the Methodists. They 

are a growing host : 



Methodist Episcopal Church 2,000,000 

' ' " South 1,000,000 

Colored Brotherhoods 700,000 

Minor Bodies 500,000 



Total in United States 4,200,000 

Add families and friends , 20,000,000 



We are concerned with these, to say 
nothing of other denominations and outsid- 
ers, who are more or less concerned in the 
peace of Methodism. That there are aliena- 
tions among Methodists is plain to all. Shall 
this state of things go on forever? This is 
an important question — none more so. 

This writer has occupied a position favor- 
able for observations, and he has undertaken 
this book under a solemn and abiding con- 
viction that something ought to be done to 
lessen the breach between the Methodist 
bodies in the land, and to effect, if possible, 
a union thereof, that there may be harmony 
and efficiency of operation in our home work, 
as well as in foreign mission fields. The 
firing upon one part of an army by another 
part, in fog or darkness, is a deplorable event 
that should be ended as soon as possible. 
Emanuel's forces should be arrayed against 
the enemy, and not against Christians. 



PRELIMINARIES. 



13 



If wrongs there be in the Methodist 
camp, let them be righted. He is unworthy 
of the name man, much less that of Chris- 
tian, who is unwilling to rectify a wrong. 
This he must do, if true to himself, his fel- 
lows, and his God. An honest man acts 
honestly. 

There is not a man among us who has 
not, many a time, had cause to change his 
opinion about himself and other men and 
measures. In early youth his views about 
geography and astronomy would not have 
passed muster in a college examination. On 
a thousand other things his opinions were 
equally at fault. Religious and ecclesiastical 
questions belong to the same category. It 
is possible for him to have grown wiser 
every day of his life — to have had a change 
of opinion. So has it been with thinking 
men in all ages. With honest men a chance 
to rectify wrong opinions is cherished as a 
right — a right often exercised. Why should 
it be denied to any ? As a cherished right, 
it was used by Saint Paul and Luther and 
Wesley; as honest men, they could but rec- 
tify their opinions when new factors were 
introduced, of which they had taken no ac- 
count before. How true it is that u now we 
know in part!" There are many who see 



14 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

the mistakes of the past, and even wonder 
that they were led into such errors. But it 
is not every man who is willing to confess 
his faults, and to abandon them. Pride of 
position, some selfish gain or advantage, a 
dislike to make confession, a weakness of 
will-power — something hinders him from own- 
ing up to truth, and righting his position. 
Still, the truly honest man feels he must do 
right, though the sky may fall ! " He swear- 
eth to his own hurt" — i. e., he tells the truth, 
even if thereby the suit may go against him 
in court. 

The man who adjusts himself to newly 
discovered facts may, by the unthinking 
crowd, be called a " turn-coat ; " but he is 
God's hero. It is well, also, to distinguish 
between free conviction and mulish obstinacy. 
Prejudice may hold her rusted scales — scales 
insensible to newly added facts ; but Honesty 
has balances so delicate as to weigh every 
new fact, though its weight be but as that of 
a human hair. 

Harper s Weekly, December -19, 1885, 
contains an account of a banker in Washing- 
ton, whose balance-sheet would not tally. 
Every time he counted up a long row of 
figures, the sum stood $6990, instead of 
$6090, the needed amount. He drew a sigh 



PRELIMINARIES. 



?5 



of regret : it proved a sigh of relief, as it 
moved an eye-lash that had fallen on a figure 
o so as to cause it to be mistaken for a 9. 
Think of it : an eye-lash disturbing a bank 
account nine hundred dollars ! But honesty 
corrects, if possible, every mistake — the small 
as quickly as the great. 

There need be no fear that a just man 
will try to do right, if he but have the facts 
in a case. There was an inward conscious- 
ness of right motives in the mind of good 
old Abraham when he said, " Shall not the 
Judge of all the earth do right ?" 

Such considerations lead us, in confidence, 
to bring to the attention of our readers cer- 
tain facts pertaining to the estrangement of 
those who, as Methodists, ought to be one in 
fellowship as they are in faith. The Lord give 
them a right understanding in these things, and 
increase their brotherly kindness, their peace 
and joy, and their usefulness among men ! 

Now, candid reader, suppose you find, 
upon a prayerful review of facts, that the 
two leading Methodisms, in the changed 
condition of affairs, have no longer sufficient 
cause for separation, and that a thousand 
reasons demand a reunion of the old Church, 
are you willing to cease your opposition to 
such a measure ? 



i6 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Hear Dr. Myers, the champion of the 
Southern branch : 

V If the attitude of hostility in which 
they now stand to each other be based on 
passion and prejudice alone, then neither 
Church would deserve the respect of the 
Christian world, did they not at once bury 
these forever out of sight." — Disruption of 
Methodism, p. 7. 

Granted that there have been wrongs — 
wrongs on both sides, if you please — in the 
exciting times before the war, during its 
continuance, and since its close, shall they 
be allowed to continue ? Is it rational ? is 
it Christian ? " Behold, I show unto you a 
more excellent way." 

" How beautifully falls 
From human lips that blessed word FORGIVE! 
Forgiveness! 'tis the attribute of God — 
The sound of which openeth heaven — renews again 
On earth lost Eden's faded bloom, and flings 
Hope's halcyon halo o'er the waste of life. 
Thrice happy lie whose heart has been so schooled 
In the meek lessons of humanity, 
That he can give it utterance ; it imparts 
Celestial grandeur to the human soul, 
And maketh man an angel." 

The writer longs — would give his life this 
day — to see the severed Methodisms come 
together in loving fellowship again, ready for 
the conquests it is the province of the Meth- 



VER-MUCH MA CHINER Y. 



17 



odists to win. He believes the old grudges 
ought to be buried, and that we should enter 
upon a new order of things typed by the 
recent union of the five former antagonistic 
Methodist bodies in Canada! Over such an 
event, would there not be heard a second 
time among the heavenly throngs, " Glory to 
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good 
will toward men ?" 



OVER-MUCH MACHINERY. 

Here is a vast section of country covered 
with the machinery of the two Methodisms 
in antagonism — the one with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, the other the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South. The districts have 
each two hostile presiding elders ; the circuits 
each two opposing preachers-in-charge ; the 
stations each two partisan pastors ; the mis- 
sions each two unfraternal missionaries ; two 
rival Advocates in the same territory ; and 
two unbrotherly sets of bishops, to keep hos- 
tilities going ; opposing annual conferences in 
session, each trying to outflank the other 
in men and measures : so of two quarterly 
meetings in the same charge ; sometimes 
conflicting appointments at the same place 
and hour (often with unbrotherly greetings) ; 

v 2 



1 8 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

two class-leaders as jealous of each other as 
two inn-keepers in the same small village ; 
two sets of antagonistic stewards, taxing 
poor people and widows to support superflu- 
ous pastors ; yet the two Methodisms as 
like as two peas ; outsiders bewildered or 
scandalized, mocking, standing aloof; chil- 
dren of old Methodist families hesitating, or 
seeking other communions free from such 
wrangles and folly ! Reasonable men now 
ask, 4 4 Why not the two Churches unite — have 
simple machinery in conference, district, cir- 
cuit, station, Sunday-school, mission — have 
one live and strong paper, instead of two 
starvelings, in the same territory — one har- 
monious bishopric over all the land?" Now, 
candid reader, tell me, " honor bright," 
do n't you think this union would be for 
the good of all? And do n't you believe 
that Satan is pleased with the present di- 
vided and antagonistic policy ? Is it pleasing 
to God? 

Look out over the land, t and you see two 
opposing boards of bishops, with their Gen- 
eral Conferences ; two general missionary so- 
cieties, often undoing each other's work ; two 
opposing church extension boards ; oppos- 
ing colleges and Sunday-schools. O, is there 
not a better way ? While I write, here comes 



O VER-MUCH MA CHINER Y. 



19 



a paper giving the number of Methodists 
in St. Louis : 



The Cyclopedia of Methodism, by Simp- 
son, gives the numbers in the old Baltimore 
Conference : 



Altar against altar, pretty evenly divided 
in Old Baltimore Conference ; and a similar 
state of things in West Virginia, East Tennes- 
see, Missouri and California. Soon it will be 
be so in Texas. The records show 4,000 
churches built in the South by the " North- 
ern " Methodists since the Confederate war — 
about three every week ! Soon they will build 
(and man) one every day! And yet there are 
simpletons who talk of keeping the North 
out of the South ! As well talk of damming 
the Mississippi ! The ever prolific dominant 
North — what does history tell of the North ? 
The northern hordes from Tartary subdued 
(and ever afterward ruled) great and popu- 
lous China, despite the Chinese Wall, the 
grandest fortification and folly ever erected 
on this planet. Northern hordes — the Goths, 
Huns, and others — overran and remodeled 



Methodist Episcopal Church 
Methodists, South 



1,236 
1,881 



Methodist Episcopal Church 
Methodists, South , 



33> 6o 7 
25^65 



20 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Southern Europe. The Sunny South will 

be no exception to Northern occupation — a 
law of nature, or of nations, as you please 
to take it. The curious reader will find in 
Appendix Number Ten, this volume, some 
figures from the United States Census, 1880, 
as to population per square mile in the States, 
North and South. The already populous 
North will continue to receive an annual in- 
flux from Europe and' Canada, and, to make 
things equal, will pour down upon our South- 
land an increasing tide of her people, with 
their vigorous ideas and sentiments about 
education, trade, and religion. In this way, 
if in no other, the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, the most aggressive religious body 
under heaven, will spread her net-work 
of conferences, circuits, stations, missions, 
schools, Sunday-schools, all over the South ; 
while the points of difference between the 
two Methodisms being so nearly invisible, 
the weaker current will be absorbed by the 
stronger, and there will be but one Episco- 
pal Methodism in Dixie, as well as in New 
York or New England. So the indications 
read. One Episcopal Methodism, East, 
West, North and South ! And what cause for 
mourning will there be? Has not the Ce7i- 
tennial Advocate told us the truth ? Hear it : 



O VER-MUCH MA CHINER V. 



21 



" It is the peculiar glory of Methodism, 
that, with all the divergence of ecclesiastical 
form and polity, not a single doctrine that 
Mr. Wesley formulated for his societies has 
ever been modified or eliminated from their 
creed. " 

Allow me to add, " If it be of God, ye 
can not overthrow it." 

Again, all nature is outspoken on the 
subject of supplemental service ; things were 
made one for another. " Male and female 
created he them." The left hand supplements 
the right, the thumb the fingers. The body 
needs eyes as well as ears, and feet as well 
as hands. What would commerce be, and 
what our comforts, without different climes 
and productions ? The sea is of service 
as well as the land. The South has recip- 
rocal relations with the North. The warm 
Southern heart should not be divorced from 
the cool, calculating brain of the North, et 
vice versa ; nor the Northern push from the 
conservatism of the South. M What God 
hath joined together, let not man put 
asunder." Old-fashioned Methodism needs 
both North and South in her world-wide 
work of spreading Scriptural holiness wher- 
ever the sons of Adam dwell. A sectional 
Methodism is lame and weak — not a well- 



22 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



balanced Methodism. We need the reunion 
of the old Church, to go forth, conquering 
and to conquer. Thus can we unify our 
work at home and abroad. So mote it be! 
" And let all the people say, Amen!" 



ALTAR AGAINST ALTAR. 

Come, reader, let us lay aside prejudice 

a moment, and walk over to , a town of 

several hundred inhabitants. Once there was 
a strong Methodist congregation here. Not 
so now. The spirit of faction rent them 
asunder in times connected with the war. 
Now there are two so-called Methodist 
Churches in the place. Each has its sickly 
Sunday-school. The children that go to one 
of them (blessed little innocents), during 
week-days "hurrah for the Democrats. " The 
children from the other "hurrah for the Re- 
publicans/ ' That is, when there is an ex- 
citing election on hands. And the parents 
follow the example of the children. One 
society meets in the old house of worship ; 
the other, in a hired house, or perchance in 
a new church edifice; but neither will affiliate 
with the other, though of like faith, practice, 
and Discipline ; yet each goes extra lengths 



ALTAR AGAINST ALTAR. 



23 



to be friendly with other Churches — Baptists, 
Presbyterians, and the like. Now, reader, 
let us be prudent. If we should hint that 
politics has crept into the two Methodist 
Churches of the town somebody might stone 
us. We need say nothing about it ; the world 
sees it as plain as the nose on a man's face, 

"O wad some power the giftie gie us, 
To see oursels as ithers see us! 
It wad frae monie a blunder free us, 
And foolish notion." — Burns. 

A wise man has said, " Train up a child 
in the way he should go." Reader, do you 
belieVe that this altar- against-altar policy, on 
political grounds is the way in which chil- 
dren should be trained ? Are we not doing 
our children a lasting injury, if not an ever- 
lasting injury, thereby ? 

" A pebble in the streamlet scant, 

Has turned the course of many a river; 
A dew-drop on the baby plant, 

Has warped the giant oak forever." 

In the absence of brotherly kindness a 
dull formality gets into pulpit and pew. 
"Methodism in earnest" has given place to 
a nondescript that lacks the power of olden 
memories. There is manifest pleasure among 
the enemies of religion in general, and espe- 
cially among the foes of Methodism. As the 



24 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



"Northern" preacher walks the streets, re- 
marks are made about his having crossed 
the line agreed upon by the two Churches ; 
and as the Southern preacher passes along 
there is something said about his refusing to 
unite with the other Methodism. Saints 
above, seeing the injuries done here below, 
are sad, 

"If sorrow in heaven can be." 

What a boon, could this senseless strife be 
cured in this village ! Reader, do you know 
where this afflicted village is ? Is it in Oregon 
or California ? There be towns like it ; but 
they came into being since the division in 
1844. Look at Maryland: there are such 
villages there, only it is the "Southern" 
preacher that has crossed the line. So of 
Indiana and Illinois. But cross into Virginia, 
and Kentucky, and Missouri, and Arkansas, 
and Tennessee, and Mississippi, and Louisi- 
ana, and Alabama, and Florida, and Georgia, 
and South Carolina, and North Carolina, and 
you find them by the thousand, and the num- 
ber constantly increasing. Shall such evils 
continue forever ? No ! Blessed be the peace- 
makers ! And yet, strange to say, our effort 
to harmonize these "brethren of the same 
Methodist family" brings down displeasure 
upon our gray hairs. Right here, putting on 



ALTAR AGAINST ALTAR. 



25 



glasses to aid impaired vision, we read a 
letter from a brother whom the late Bishop 
Paine styled " one of the foremost men in 
the Church. " In this letter are these words: 

"I was sorry to see your name omitted in the 
list of delegates to the General Conference, but, of 
course, knew it was attributable to your sentiments 
in regard to reunion. It may be premature to dis- 
cuss it, it may never be practicable to adopt it, but 
as for the spirit of fraternity and the sentiment of 
love for our brethren at the North I can go as far 
as any one. They are far ahead of us in one thing 
I know, and that is the work among the colored 
people, which we have shamefully abandoned. We 
must get back to that or we shall never have a 
whole Church in the South, nor a whole Church of 
Christ anywhere."* 

But there was One who "trod the wine- 
press alone/' and " of the people there was 
none with him. ,, Looking to him, we can 
afford to labor and to wait. As J. W. 
Chambers says: 

" Many a man puts in the seed who never reaps 
the harvest, and many another brings home ripe 
sheaves on which he bestowed no labor, save that 
of the sickle. The worker for Christ works in faith, 
expecting the Divine Hand to secure results. He 
has abundant reason to believe good is being done, 
of which he may have no certain knowledge till 



*Rev. F. M. Grace, D. D., Louisiana. 



26 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



the great day. It may be best for his spiritual 
welfare to be kept in this state ; and he honors the 
Master by persevering in a good work in the face 
of all discollragement. ,, 

For preaching a funeral sermon in a 
" Northern " church, tendered for the occa- 
sion, this writer, won the displeasure of 
"Southern" brethren — not a few! 



THE O'KELLEY SCHISM. * 

Schism is always hurtful. To show this, 
we take a clear case — that of O'Kelley, who 
was an elder in the Christmas Conference of 
1784 — a man of great influence — history says, 
"a man hardly second to Asbury." What it was 
that changed his mind, no one seems to have 
known ; but he became a leader of disaffected 
spirits. Asbury and Coke, seeing a storm 
ahead, called a conference of the preachers at 
Baltimore, November 1, 1792 — the first of the 
kind since the organization of the Church in 

* "The session was remarkable for some measures intro- 
duced by Mr. O'Kelley. He had been presiding elder over 
one of the largest districts chiefly in Virginia, and being a 
man of more than ordinary mind, and of great energy of 
character, he had obtained a strong influence over the 
younger preachers ; by some means he had become dissatis- 
fied with the administration of Mr. Asbury, and was jealous 
of his authority. — Cyclopedia of Methodism. 



THE VKELLEY SCHISM. 



27 



1784. On the second day O'Kelley brought 
forward an amendment to the Discipline : 

4 'After the bishop appoints the preachers at 
conference to their several circuits, if any one 
think himself injured by the appointment, he shall 
have liberty to appeal to the conference and state 
his objections, and if the conference approve his 
objections, the bishop shall appoint him to another 
circuit." 

Hereupon Asbury retired from the deliber- 
ations, leaving Coke to preside. Arguments 
for and against the amendment were strong 
and strongly presented. After much debate 
the clear-minded Dickins moved to divide 
the question: " 1. Shall the bishop appoint 
the preachers? 2. Shall the preacher be 
allowed an appeal?" 

On the first question thus put there was 
not a dissenting vote ; but when the second 
was called up, the debate waxed warmer 
than before. The blessed Sabbath came on — 
a high day with the brethren. Jesse Lee 
writes : " On Monday we began the debate 
afresh, and continued it through the day ; 
and at night we went to Mr. Otterbein's 
Church, and again continued it till near bed- 
time, when the vote was taken and the motion 
was lost by a large majority. " 

This ought to have satisfied and settled 



28 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



O'Kelley ; but schism, like jealousy, is blind ; 
and well-meant efforts to conciliate only make 
matters worse. O'Kelley and his squad left 
the conference and the town — to spread dis- 
affection in the Societies ! 

After a week consumed in this debate — 
time well-spent in settling foundation prin- 
ciples — the conference proceeded to shape 
other matters of polity of great moment to 
the Church, and adjourned. O'Kelley ought 
to have remained to its close ; instead, he 
was off, and pulling down what he had helped 
to build, in a favored section, where he had 
been laboring ten successive years ! 11 For 
ways that are dark and tricks that are vain" 
schismatics are ever ready. The seceding 
band — " Republican Methodists" — gloried in 
their shame. Lee, called the apostle of New 
England Methodism, writes : 

4 ' It was enough to make the saints of God weep 
between the porch and the altar, and that both day 
and night, to see how the Lord's flock was carried 
away captive by that division. ... In some 
places they took from us whole Societies together, 
and in many places they drew off a part. Others 
they threw into confusion; and in some places they 
scattered the flock and separated the people one 
from another, without securing them to their own 
party. Brother was turned against brother, and 
one Christian friend against another. The main 



THE ) KELLEY SCHISM. 



2 9 



contention was about the government of the Church ; 
who should govern it, or in what manner it ought 
to be governed. In this mist of darkness and con- 
fusion, many religious people, who had been warm 
advocates of the life and power of religion, began 
to contend about Church government, and neglect 
the duties of religion, till they were turned back to 
the world and gave up religion altogether." 

In Virginia and North Carolina the defec- 
tion spread, and a few cases appeared else- 
where. Nine years later O'Kelley sent out 
a pamphlet in which he styles his following 
" The Christian Church" Some of his ad- 
herents hesitated at this name. Another 
division followed. O'Kelley headed the 
" Christian Church;" John Robertson, the 
" Republican Methodists." There was yet 
another split: Guirey leads the " Indepen- 
dent Christian Baptist Church." 

In 1809 Mr. Lee again writes: "They 
have divided and subdivided till at present 
it is hard to find two of them that are of one 
opinion." Now, who can calculate the evils 
of this schism ? When it broke out the 
Methodist membership was 76, 1 53. The rate 
of increase for years had been to double the 
membership every four years. Instead of 
gaining any thing, the membership had de- 
creased in four years 19,509, in 1796. The 



30 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



traveler whose progress is fifty miles a day 
meets with a mishap and breaks his buggy, 
and loses a day. Not only that, but he has 
to go back ten miles to get his buggy half- 
mended. The loss is not merely ten miles, 
as any one can see. So in this O'Kelley 
schism; instead of there being 152,306, as 
the usual increase would have made the 
membership, it was reduced to 56,644 — a 
fearful havoc made by a 44 man hardly second 
to Asbury." What a relative loss, for all 
time and eternity ! Where shall we find a 
sin more deserving of divine displeasure than 
the sin of schism? Hurtful evermore! 

The O'Kelley schism touched the heroic 
James Haw, in Kentucky, at a time 44 when 
it seemed that all the people would embrace 
religion." It spread like a contagion. Itin- 
erants, local preachers, 44 many members in 
many Societies" were disaffected. But Will- 
iam Burke, then a young man, met Haw in 
close debate, and turned back the schismatic 
tide that, up to this time, had been sweeping 
nearly all before it, so that Haw found him- 
self left by the multitude ; and at a commun- 
ion service he had only himself and his wife 
as communicants, 44 if reports be true." 
" But few, if any, were either awakened or 
converted under his ministry after his de- 



THE O'KELLEY SCHISM. 



31 



fection, so entirely did the spirit engendered 
by schism destroy his once powerful minis- 
try." ' — Mc Tyeire. 

A few years later, to get into good com- 
pany again, he joined the Presbyterians, who 
were then laboring with the Methodists in 
a wide-spread revival, preaching and com- 
muning together. As Haw had said so 
many hard things against x^sbury and the 
Methodists, he was likely to be the cause of 
a rupture between the two Churches engaged 
in the great revival. Page and Wilkerson, 
the leaders among the Methodists, said that 
if Haw were to come among the workers, 
he ought first to make acknowledgments ; 
and the Presbyterians thought so, too. Ac- 
cordingly, on Sunday, in the presence of 
assembled thousands, he " ate humble-pie " — 
made acknowledgments full and satisfactory. 
Afterward, he gradually regained favor and 
esteem, and died a good Presbyterian. Yet 
what mischief he had done ! 

But one malcontent often encourages 
others. While O'Kelley was making havoc of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in Virginia 
and the regions round about, and his lieu- 
tenant Haw was engaged in similar work in 
the West, one William Hammett lifted the 
banner of revolt in the Carolinas. He had 



32 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



come from the West Indies with Dr. Coke, 
and had been introduced to the kind Meth- 
odists of Charleston. Having the confidence 
of Wesley and Coke, but taking umbrage at 
Asbury and the preachers under him, he 
was in a position to do harm. Proceeding 
to place himself at the head of a following, 
lie organized his band of " Primitive Metho- 
dists/' Soon " the Church in Charleston 
was humbled and brought very low by a 
schism that extended to Georgetown and 
Wilmington, and ate like a canker into the 
country congregations from those centers. 

Hammett's schism was not so ex- 
tensive as his brother Irishman's [O 'Kel- 
ley's] ; he lacked his fierce energy and his 
large acquaintance. . . . After fifteen or 
twenty years, by purchase or by treaty, this 
Trinity Church and other Hammett church- 
property in other places, with most of the 
membership, reverted to the old side or 
Asbury Methodists." — McTyeires Hist., 

PP- 4I3-I5- 

The celebrated John Todd once said, 

"The easiest thing in the world is to get 
up a rebellion in college. " The next easiest, 
perhaps, is to start a schism in the Church. 
Did not Lucifer, in his revolt, draw after 
him a third part of heaven? And are not 



A SMALL BUT FATAL SCHISM. 



33 



" his angels " concerned in these schisms on 
earth? An apostle has said, "We are not 
ignorant of his devices." 

The O 'Kelley schism has in it a lesson 
of warning lor us. All along the 44 border 
work " we find all the marks and losses of 
schism. This was not in the 4 4 Plan of Sep- 
aration" at all. 44 An enemy hath done 
this." As Christians, ought we not to give 
our influence on the side of peace ? Down 
with this division! 



A SMALL BUT FATAL SCHISM. 

The larger defections are dreaded, as 
their disastrous effects are seen of many. 
But the smaller schisms seem the more viru- 
lent the narrower the circle in which they 
are confined. A striking instance came 
under my own observation in the earlier 
days of my ministerial life. 

There was a little band of Methodists at 
old Hopewell. Their narrow quarters were 
getting old, and it was agreed to build a 
new house of larger dimensions and more 
modern style. When it was finished — a nice 
thing it was — a meeting was appointed there ; 
not the common dedicatory programme, one 
item of which is to " raise a collection" to 



34 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



pay off a large remaining debt upon the 
property; for the new house was paid for, 
every cent. Upon the Sunday congregation 
there seemed to descend a divine power from 
above: saints rejoiced and sinners wept; a 
number left the assembly, but to cry out, on 
reaching the yard, " Men and brethren, 
what must we do to be saved ?" The re- 
vivals resulted in an increase in the member- 
ship of more than one hundred per cent. It 
was good to be there. The cause was in a 
prosperous condition, till suddenly a schism 
occured. The two leading men in the so- 
ciety — one the class-leader, the other an 
exhorter — " fell out by the way." A com- 
plaint was lodged by the leader against the 
exhorter, and a trial had before the preacher- 
in-charge. The verdict was an acquittal. 
Thereupon the exhorter brought a counter- 
charge, with a dozen specifications against 
his leader — bitter, personal, unsparing as 
could be. A trial was ordered, and I was 
appointed secretary, to take down the pro- 
ceedings. The neighborhood was out, ex- 
cited. Family and party lines were drawn. 
The trial went on till noon, and then till 
night, and after dark, till four o'clock next 
morning, when a verdict of guilty was 
reached, and expulsion was announced. 



A SMALL BUT FATAL SCHLSM. 



35 



From that day that class drooped, dwindled, 
and died ! "A house divided against itself 
can not stand/' 

Antagonistic parties often diminish, if 
they do not destroy each the other's hold 
on public confidence. To show this, we 
give an incident that occurred long years 
ago, at Athens, Tenn., in the days of the 
eccentric Judge Scott. On adjourning the 
court at noon, the judge sat warming him- 
self before a huge, old-fashioned log fire, at 
the hotel. In came Mr. A., a lawyer, smart- 
ing under the loss of a case, by the strategic 
cunning of opposing counsel, and said : 

" Judge, Mr. B., [the opposing counsel] 
is the biggest rascal that ever went unhung !" 

Just then Mr. B., was seen darkening the 
door, whereupon Mr. A., beat a hasty re- 
treat to his private room up-stairs. But Mr. 
B., paused to warm himself at the fire, and 
said: "Well, your honor, that man A., is 
the [blankest] villain that ever escaped the 
gallows." 

With a twinkle in his eye, the judge 
replied : 

"Why, that is what he said of you not 
a minute ago." 

" Well, then, which of us do you be- 
lieve?" demanded the wrathful Blackstone. 



36 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



The answer came, with expletives — " I 
believe you both !" 

Is it any wonder that the good work 
waned under the O'Kelley schism, or any 
other, for that matter? Said Paul, ' 4 Take 
heed that ye be not consumed one of 
another." 



A REJECTED ARTICLE. 

A friendly interchange of our opinions 
on great living issues is a privilege in our 
higher civilization. It is even the duty of 
Christians. Believing that the altar-against- 
altar policy of the Methodist Churches is a 
great evil, I wrote an article for a conference 
organ, affixing a proper name, that no inno- 
cent person need bear any censure. After 
a brief delay, I received from the editor a 
courteous letter declining to print, for fear 
of dangers dire ! Here is his letter : 

"August 26, 1885. 

"Dr. Brunner, — I am almost compelled to de- 
cline your article on union ; but out of no disre- 
spect to you. There 's brain in it, and your motives 
are lofty ; but I think that your article would at 
this time create an explosion. I am not just now 
prepared to carry the craft in a storm — too much 
trouble already. Don't judge me rashly. Write 



A REJECTED ARTICLE. 



37 



on. You are welcome to these columns; only I 
must exercise my judgment in printing. 

"Your friend and brother, . . 

We replied, exonerating the editor from 
all censure, in the presence of such dangers 
to the paper. But here is the rejected com- 
munication : 

LESSON OF THE HOUR. 

General Grant has been laid to rest by the 
acknowledged representative men of a reunited 
country. President Cleveland and Ex-Presidents 
Hayes and Arthur were there. And there were 
Hancock, the superb, and Fitzhugh Lee. General 
Sherman and Joe Johnston were there. And there 
were Phil. Sheridan and General Buckner. Time 
would fail to name the million more, North and 
South, who were there — proof this that the war is 
over, and that we are a united sisterhood of States. 
Let us sing, 

" Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." 

Why not Episcopal Methodism be a united 
sisterhood of conferences? Shall the children of 
this world be wiser in their generation than the 
children of light? The flaunters of the 4 'bloody 
shirt" in politics have been shelved by patriotic 
public sentiment. Will not public sentiment soon 
mete out a similar fate to the flaunters of feud- 
signals of Methodism ? Speed the day ! A need- 
less division of the Church is schism ; and is not 
schism a sin ? 



38 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Were the two Methodisms a unit, what a con- 
servation of energy and effort for good ! One can 
chase a thousand, but the two can put ten thousand 
to flight. 

Now, instead of unity of purpose, we have altar 
against altar in thousands of little towns and 
sparsely settled places! If devils ever laugh, 
methinks they have high carnival over such folly 
as this. And who can tell how much the cause 
of the Redeemer is weakened by such hostile dis- 
plays of Methodistic forces and efforts, even in the 
populous cities and towns, as well as in mission 
fields at home and abroad? And is this folly — this 
sin — to go on forever? God forbid ! This schism, 
if continued, will drive many of our people away 
from Methodism. Suppose a righteous reunion of 
Northern and Southern Methodists, would there 
not be a hallelujah over it among the glorified 
Methodists who walk arm in arm in the golden 
city above? 

Who will longer oppose such a reunion ? Count 
me in favor of such a measure. The lesson of the 
hour is such a reunion of the two Methodisms. 

J. H. Brunner. 

Such were our convictions. The two 
Churches were one till 1844. Slavery was 
the wedge that sundered thern. And, now 
that slavery is a dead issue — a canceled fac- 
tor — thinking men everywhere inquire, "Why 
not the severed Methodist army become one 
again ?" 



PROVISION FOR REUNION. 39 

u Behold, how good and how pleasant it 
is for brethren to dwell together in unity." 

But the schism in Methodism, like the 
ghost in the drama, "will not down." Ten 
thousand pious voices cry for relief from the 
many evils growing out of this now un- 
necessary division in the Methodist family. 
The time, however, for reunion is coming, 
coming ! 

" It may be far, it may be near." 

It may be the result of another Cape May 
Joint Commission ; God be praised for the 
first one ! It may be the outcome of attri- 
tion continued for an indefinite period. Better, 
however, by wise and timely agreement than 
by attrition, "disintegration, and absorption." 



PROVISION FOR REUNION. 

The Louisville Convention did solid work. 
The first resolution in the report of the 
Committee on Organization erected the con- 
ferences there represented into " a separate 
ecclesiastical connection, under the provisional 
Plan of Separation, and based upon the Dis- 
cipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, . . . 
and to be known as the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. " Ayes, 94; nays, 3. 



40 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Then follows the second resolution, adopted 
unanimously : 

"Resolved, That we can not abandon or com- 
promise the principles of action upon which we 
proceed to a separate organization in the South. 
Nevertheless, cherishing a sincere desire to maintain 
Christian union and fraternal intercourse with the 
Church North, we shall always be ready, kindly 
and respectfully, to entertain, and duly and care- 
fully consider, any proposition or plan, having for 
its object the union of the two great bodies in the 
North and South, whether such proposed union be 
jurisdictional or connectional." (See Appendix, 
Number Five, this volume.) 

Now, what hinders — who hinders such a 
union? Is it not so " nominated in the 
bond ?" 



THE TWO NIAGARAS ONE. 

In the Methodist Advocate, Chattanooga, 
October 14, 1885, appears the following: 

"Rev. M. L. Jones, pastor of North Fork Cir- 
cuit, sends us an interesting account of a debate 
recently held at Farley's Chapel; between Rev. A, H. 
Ingle, of the M. E. Church, and Rev. J. S. Ken- 
nedy, of the M. E. Church South, on the question 
of the relative ages of the two Churches. Brother 
Jones's account is too lengthy for our columns ; but 
suffice it to say that the old Church was ably de- 
fended, and the audience that listened were well 



THE TWO NIAGARAS ONE. 



41 



satisfied as to the priority of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. " 

Brother Kennedy claims to have been en- 
trapped into this vain jangling. 

Between the United States and the Do- 
minion of Canada is a noted river that parts 
at Goat Island and pours over a precipice as 
the Falls of Niagara — two immense sheets 
of water, co-equal in age, if not in volume ; 
and both alike reflecting the prismatic glories 
of the rainbow, the signet or seal of the 
Divine Hand ! Up to date no cranky Cana- 
dian has been found to claim for his "side" 
a priority in point of time. 

So of the two Methodisms. The Supreme 
Court and the Cape May judges have said 
the two branches are coeval, co-ordinate 
Churches, equal in legitimacy and authority. 
The Plan of Separation was voted for alike 
by the Northern and Southern delegates, 
who desired to part in peace. The squabbles 
came afterward. Retaliations followed the 
violations of the Plan. Litigations, aliena- 
tions, heart-burnings, enmities — all this by 
Methodists who agreed to live in peace, or by 
their heirs and assigns ! Is it not time to 
cease this jangling, this irritation, this strife, 
and be at one again ? — a reunited stream flow- 
ing onward to the immeasurable sea? 

4 



42 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES, 



RANDOLPH'S CIRCULAR. 

Baltimore, Oct. 14, 1867. 
Rev. J. H. Bruxner, Presiding Elder Athens District: 

Dear Brother, — The paper hereto annexed has 
been published in several of the weekly papers of 
the two Churches named. I send it to you with 
a respectful and earnest request that you will pre- 
sent the matter to the Methodists of your district, 
in such a manner as may be practical or conven- 
ient, and that you will be kind enough to inform 
me what you believe to be the views of the people 
of your district in regard to the object contem- 
plated. Very respectfully, 

John W. Randolph. 

Broadway, Baltimore, Md. 
Here is the paper : 

REUNION 

OF THE 

Methodist Episcopal Church 

WITH THE 

Methodist Episcopal Chuirchi, Souitln. 

These two prominent Church organizations, so 
nearly assimilated in every respect, ought to be 
united into one Church. The principal cause of 
the separation, which has existed for upwards of 
twenty years, has now passed away ; and there is 
now really no valid or substantial reason for a con- 
tinuance of the line of separation. In fact, the 
present course pursued by both Churches, in estab- 
lishing Churches contiguous to each other, and in 
many cases apparently antagonistic, is perhaps the 



RANDOLPH'S CIRCULAR. 



43 



strongest reason why an effort should be made to 
bring about harmony of action in strengthening our 
Zion. And this is an auspicious time for Meth- 
odism to do its part to unite many who have been 
estranged by the calamities of our land during the 
past few years. Such a consummation would bring 
joy and gladness to thousands of the Methodist 
family throughout the country. 

The concessions that ought to be required of 
either Church are insignificant when compared with 
the important results that would follow. Both 
Churches are so nearly allied that their distinguish- 
ing features can scarcely be recognized by an im- 
partial observer. Their denominational title, dis- 
cipline, hymns, doctrine, government, usages, and 
forms of worship, are, in most respects, identical. 
If prejudice be ignored, and the animosity of former 
years shall cease, the way seems to be open to 
unite, in one bond of brotherhood, many who are 
now alienated without good and sufficient cause. 

The economy of these Churches has no pre- 
scribed method to initiate proceedings to accom- 
plish this object. We have waited in vain to see 
the olive-branch of peace and good- will presented 
by either of their General Conferences. Fraternal 
greetings have long since ceased, and the breach is 
widening to the hurt of many of God's people. 

Is it impossible to effect a reconciliation? If 
not, is it not worth an earnest effort, and the sacri- 
fice of every hindering cause ? 

In the absence of a better plan, I submit for 
your consideration the following : That the Rev. Abel 



44 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Stevens, Rev. Lovick Pierce, and Rev. Henry Slicer 
be requested to meet in Baltimore, in the month of 
January next, to deliberate on the subject, and devise 
a plan to unite the two Churches as one denomina- 
tion, with such recommendations in reference there- 
to as they may adopt, and publish the result in one 
or more of our Church papers. With such a plan 
as a basis, the subject would in various forms be 
brought before the Methodist people, East, West, 
North, and South, and in meetings of the member- 
ship, official meetings, conferences and otherwise, 
an expression of opinion may be obtained. 

In this manner, it would finally reach the Gen- 
eral Conferences, by whom only the arrangements 
can be completed. These well-known servants of 
the Church will doubtless be induced to perform 
this service in the absence of any formal method 
of appointment, upon a general promiscuous call, 
indicated by private solicitations, and by approval 
of the plan in our Church papers — North and South. 
If the object is deemed feasible, it is earnestly de- 
sired that it be published in all the Methodist 
papers, that our people may have an opportunity 
to consider the question and express their opinion 
on a subject of vital importance to them. 

In case the matter meets with general favor, and 
is so indicated by publications in our Church papers, 
the ministers named will no doubt feel constrained 
to engage in this good work, and will arrange the 
time of meeting and publish it in one or more of 
our Church papers, which publication will give those 
concerned an opportunity to communicate their 



RANDOLPH'S CIRCULAR. 



45 



views on the subject under consideration ; and upon 
the appearance of such notice, provision will be 
made for the entertainment and expenses incurred 
in the premises. A Methodist. 

Baltimore, Sept., 1867. 

Replying to Brother Randolph, we gave 
him encouragement to do all he could to 
bring about a fair and honorable reunion of 
the two Methodisms. Adverse utterances 
appeared in the papers, and the matter was 
passed over for the time. What evils might 
have been averted, could the Churches have 
then become as one at home and in foreign 
lands ! 

In a heathen land, where Christianity is 
confronted by all the errors and evils of 
paganism, and where Christians see so much 
to do and endure, it is no marvel to see the 
little barriers of the sects all swept away by 
" the stream that makes glad the city of God." 

The cobweb barriers in American Meth- 
odism should disappear. The Macedonian cry 
comes from a thousand fields afar ! O, it is 
strange, indeed, that we waste our energies, 
our means, in cross purposes that had much 
better, a thousand times, be let alone ! 

It is said that the English language has 
increased among men five-fold within the last 
hundred years. Upon this fact wise men 



4 6 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



have said that our language will yet take the 
world. There is comfort in this ; for the 
English tongue is the vernacular of Protest- 
ant faith, just as the Roman dialects are of 
the Romish papacy. 

If the increase of the English language 
justifies the prediction that it will become 
universal, what shall we say of Methodism, 
that increases five times as rapidly as does 
our language ? Were Wesley's words a 
prophecy — " The world is my parish ?" 

Careful recent estimates place the popu- 
lation of the world at about 1,400,000,000. 
The governments under which they live may 
be ranged under four classes, and the popu- 
lation under these as follows : 

Greek Church governments 98,000,000 

Romish " " 187,000,000 

Protestant " " ...430,000,000 

Total, 715,000,000 

But many under these so-called Christian 
governments are not yet Christians. The 
Non-Christian nations number 685,000,000 
more! 

"Salvation! O, salvation! 

The joyful sound proclaim, 
Till earth's remotest nation 

Has learned Messiah's name." 

Wesley's last letter to the brethren in 
America was addressed to Ezekiel Cooper, 



RANDOLPH'S CIRCULAR. 



47 



and it contained these words: "Lose no 
opportunity of declaring to all men that the 
Methodists are one people in all the world, 
and that it is their full determination so to 
continue, 

"'Though mountains rise, and oceans roll, 
To sever us in vain !" 

If Jesus were here — were to walk in bodily 
form into the General Conference of either 
of the Methodisms — does any one believe he 
would advise a continuation of this strife in 
the Methodist family ? 

Reader, when you bow in prayer in your 
closet and pray "Thy kingdom come," do 
you ever add " and keep this war going 
among the Methodists ?" 

Such questions may seem almost mockery, 
so thoroughly are we convinced that the very 
essence of Christianity is love and joy and 
peace. In revivals, it is hard to tell one 
Christian from another; in schisms, they 
stand wide apart ! 

A. PRAYER. 

O Thou who didst die that the world 
through Thee might have everlasting life, 
bring Thou thy people into closer fellowship. 
Especially draw the people called Methodists 
into closer union with Thyself and with one 



48 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



another, that thy saving health may be 
known in all lands wherein men do dwell, 
until a knowledge of thy glory may cover 
the earth as the waters cover the deep. 



NOTES OF A SERMON. 

Whitefield and other great reformers 
never stop to prove the Bible true, but use 
it as the sword of the Spirit put into their 
hands, bright and " with heavenly temper 
keen.'' So of the preacher in this case.* 
His text, the 133d Psalm: 

Christian unity not inconsistent with a 
diversity of views on the social, political, or 
religious questions found among men of the 
different nations of the world. 

No other brotherhood so strong and ten- 
der as that of Christians. 

Stronger than life or death. Comes down 
as the poured-out ointment, as the falling 
dew, as the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 

Upon the head of the Church — down 
upon the skirts of the garments — all the 
Church : the head not without the body ; 
the body not without the head ; takes both 
to make the Church. 



Rev. A. G. Worley, of Ga., visiting the Holston Con- 
ference, 1885. 



NOTES ON A SERMON. 49 

A religion that does not unite Christ to 
the body and the body to Christ, is false. 

How sweet the union ! Many members, 
one body ; all baptized by one Spirit into 
one body, the Church. 

If spiritually baptized, a brother in 
Christ — brother of all Christians. 

The affection stronger than for a natural 
father, mother, brother, sister, house, lands, 
life itself! Love shed abroad in the heart 
by the Holy Ghost begets love, despite dif- 
ference in station, interest, opinions — the 
true charity of the Bible, love to all, malice 
to none. 

If adopted, I must love all. 

All selfishness gives way; Lot and 
Abraham. 

Love hides a multitude of faults — the true 
mother shows this. 

Anger unpleasant — hate wretched. Love 
heavenly — the essence of heaven ; hate the 
essence of hell ! 

My brother's gifts mine to enjoy ; my 
gifts are his to enjoy, 

One family ; if one suffers, all suffer ; if 
one rejoices, all rejoice. 

A brotherhood of men and angels ; guar- 
dian angels love us. 

The mother loves her child the more, the 

5 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



more trouble he has been ! So of angels 
caring for us ! 

Dews how gentle — how good for Her- 
mon ! Where there is no brotherly love, 
the land dry and parched ! 

If a loving Church, there God s blessing, 
and nowhere else ! If the world is con- 
quered for Christ, it will be by love. 

There is brotherly love, and this will 
cause wars to cease. Every man has as 
much right to his opinion as you. See that 
ye " fall not out by the way." 



HINTS ON EPISCOPACY. 

* 4 John Wesley belonged to that class of 
Episcopalians who believe that episcopacy is 
not a distinct order, but a distinct office, in 
the ministry ; that bishops and presbyters 
(or elders) are of the same order, and have 
essentially the same prerogatives ; but that, 
for convenience, some of this order may be 
raised to the episcopal office, and the func- 
tions originally pertaining to the whole 
order — as ordination, for example — may be 
confined to them. The presbyter thus ele- 
vated is but primus inter pares — the first 
among equals.'' — McTyeire, Hist, of Meth- 
odism, p. 394. 



HINTS ON EPISCOPACY. 



At the organization of the Methodist 
Church, we find the bishops were made 
amenable for their conduct, the conference 
reserving the right " to expel if they see it 
necessary." The conference elected both 
Coke and Asbury — the latter refusing to serve 
by Wesley's appointment only, without the 
the vote of his brethren. The Methodist 
Episcopal Church has never had a bishop that 
it did not elect, nor have her bishops had 
any episcopal powers she did not confer. 

After the division of the Church in 
1844-45, at the first chance, the meeting of 
the General Conference of the " southern 
half," at Petersburg, "on motion of B. M. 
Drake, it was resolved unanimously, by a 
rising vote, that Bishop Soule be received 
as one of the bishops of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South. " Even Soule ! 

The bishops have ever been the creatures 
and servants of the Episcopal Methodisms. 

Of the General Conference, 1800, Bishop 
McTyeire says, Hist., p. 377 : 

" Bishop Asbury thought of nothing else 
but the resignation of his office ; and it is 
said he went to this conference with his 
valedictory address for the occasion written 
out, in his pocket. But . . such a step 
was checked by the conference." 



52 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



u There is a difference between bishops 
having a Church and a Church having bishops. 
The former is High-Churchism ; the latter 
is the doctrine of Scripture." — R. Abbey. 

" What are the duties of a bishop ? The 
General Conference asks this question, and 
then proceeds to answer it particularly, 
pointing out each several duty, without con- 
sulting the bishops. The Church thus pre- 
scribes what the bishops shall or shall not 
do. Every Church makes its own bishops, 
if it wants them, imposing upon them such 
duties as it deems expedient, and withhold- 
ing such privileges as it does not want to 
grant." — Abbey. 

Now, admitting this, did the General 
Conference commit an unpardonable eccles- 
iastical sin, in requesting Bishop Andrew to 
desist from the itinerant superintendency of 
a Church, a large part of which felt scandal- 
ized by his connection with slavery ? 

" As a matter of fact, the General Con- 
ference has constantly legislated for bishops, 
and controls them by its acts." — Southern 
Methodist Quarterly Review, 1885. 

The General Conference has often asked 
bishops, even against their will, to desist 
from the exercise of their accustomed tasks, 
on account of physical or other disabilities : 



HINTS ON EPISCOPACY. 



S3 



in the case of Bishop Andrew, the request 
was based upon ecclesiastical " impediment. M 

u Like everything else about Methodism, 
its episcopacy is the outgrowth of circum- 
stances, and we must study its historic de- 
velopment to know the extent and limita- 
tions of both its powers and prerogatives/ 1 — 
E. H. Myers, Disruption of Methodism, p. 69. 

Slavery made Andrew unacceptable to 
the greater portion of the Church, but per- 
haps the more acceptable to the South. The 
majority ruled ; that is the story in a nut- 
shell. That the episcopacy of Methodism is 
one subject to modification, the whole history 
of her existence abundantly proves : the pow- 
ers of the bishops in stationing the preachers, 
for instance, have been modified by repeated 
enactments. Hence we see no barrier to 
union with other Methodist bodies, as in 
Canada, even if such union require some 
modification in our episcopacy. Surely we 
have none among us so simple as to plead 
for that fossilized '' figment " called " apos- 
tolical succession " and an unbending regula- 
tion in office. The Church can make more 
bishops if she needs them — and can give 
them greater or less duties to perform, as she 
may deem proper, from time to time. The 
Lord does not run all his bullets in one mold ! 



54 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



A GRAND COUNCIL— 1844. 

It were hard to find in the history of the 
Church a council of greater moral grandeur 
than the General Conference of 1844 — the 
last of the Methodist Episcopal Church be- 
fore the separation. The various delegations 
seem to have been chosen on the score of 
merit among the ministers, and not out of a 
factious partiality. " There were giants in 
those days;" and there were thrust upon 
them gigantic questions. History* tells us: 

"The popular presentation of the matter is, 
that all the difficulty, and finally the division, had 
sole reference to the case of Bishop Andrew, and 
but for him there had been no serious controversy 
in the General Conference. The remarks made on 
that occasion show, 'that in the opinion of the 
prominent speakers, the Rubicon was passed before 
the case of Bishop Andrew was taken up at all. 
We shall therefore make a few quotations from 
those speeches, as being calculated to reflect im- 
portant light on this part of our history. We quote 
the following remarks from the speech of Dr. Olin : 

" - I have feared for these two or three days 
that, though possibly we may escape the disasters 
that threaten us, it is not probable. I have seen 
the cloud gathering so dark that it seems to me 



*" History of the Organization : " Nashville, 1845. 



A GRAND COUNCIL— 1844. 



there is no hope left us, unless God shall give 
us hope. It may be from my relation to both ex- 
tremities, that, inferior as may be my means of 
forming conclusions on other topics, I have some 
advantages on this. And from an intimate ac- 
quaintance with the feelings of my brethren in the 
work, I see little ground of encouragement to hope. 
It appears to me that we stand committed on this 
question by our principles and views of policy, and 
neither of us dare move a step from our position. 
Let us keep away from the controversy until 
brethren from opposite sides have come together. 
I confess I turn away from it with sorrow, and a 
deep feeling of apprehension that the difficulties 
that are upon us now threaten to be unmanageable. 
I feel it in my heart, and never felt on any other 
subject as I do on this. I may take it for granted 
that we speak as opponents here. I have had no 
part in this controversy. It has pleased God that 
I should be far away, or laid upon a bed of sick- 
ness. I have my opinions and attachments, but I 
am committed by no act of mine to either side; 
and I will take it on me to say freely that I do 
not see how Northern men can yield their ground, 
or Southern men give up theirs. I do, indeed, be- 
lieve, that if our affairs remain in their present 
position, and this General Conference do not speak 
out clearly and distinctly on the subject, however 
unpalatable it may be, they could not go home 
under this distracting question without a certainty 
of breaking up their conferences. I have been to 
eight or ten of the Northern conferences, and 



56 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



spoken freely with men of every class, and firmly 
believe, that, with the fewest exceptions, they are 
influenced by the most ardent and the strongest 
desire to maintain the Discipline of our Church. 
Will the Southern men believe me in this — when 
I say I am sincere, and well informed on the sub- 
ject? The men who stand here as abolitionists are 
as ardently attached to the Methodist episcopacy 
as you all. I believe it in my heart. Your North- 
ern brethren, who seem to you to be arrayed in a 
hostile attitude, haye suffered a great deal before 
they have taken their position, and they come up 
here distressed beyond measure, and disposed, if 
they believed they could, without destruction and 
ruin to the Church, to make concession. It may 
be that both parties will consult together and talk 
over the matter fairly, and unbosom themselves, 
and speak all that is in their hearts; and as lovers 
of Christ keep out of passion and prejudice, and 
with much prayer call down the Holy Spirit upon 
their deliberations, and feeling the dire necessity 
that oppresses both parties, they will at least en- 
deavor to adopt some plan of pacification, that if 
they go away, it may not be without hope of 
meeting again as brethren. I look to this measure 
with desire rather than with hope. With regard to 
our Southern brethren, and I hold that on this 
question, at least, I may speak with some confi- 
dence* — that if they concede what the Northern 
brethren wish — if they concede that holding slaves 

* Dr. Olin had once labored in the South, and was pop- 
ular there. 



A GRAND COUNCIL— 1844. 57 



is incompatible with holding their ministry — they 
may as well go to the Rocky Mountains as to their 
sunny plains. The people would not bear it. They 
feel shut up to their principles on this point. They 
love the cause, and would serve God in their work. 
I believe there is not a man among them that would 
not make every sacrifice, and even die, if thereby 
they could heal this division. If their difficulties were 
unmanageable, let their spirit be right. If we must 
part, let us meet and pour out our tears together, 
and let us not give up until we have tried. I came 
into this conference yesterday morning to offer an- 
other resolution. It was that we should suspend, 
now that the Sabbath had intervened and shed its 
calmness and quiet over our agitated spirits — that 
we should suspend our duties for one day, and de- 
vote it to fasting and prayer, that God might help 
us, that if we have not union, we may have peace. 
This resolution partakes of the same spirit. I can 
not speak on this subject without deep emotion. 
If we push our principles so far as to break up the 
connection, this may be the last time we may meet. 
/ fear it ! I fear it f I see no way of escape. 1 
"Mr. Crandle, of New England, said: 
"'I am as much for conciliation as any man, 
and do not wish to disturb the good feeling that at 
present exists in the conference. But there is a 
dark shade of difference between the brethren of 
the two extremes. I suppose I shall be taken as 
one standing on the extreme. As such we are 
standing on a volcano which may at any moment 
destroy us. But what is the pretext for this reform 



58 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



movement? Why, there is slavery in the Church, 
and the Church tolerates it. And we must meet it. 
But has the North shown any disposition for divis- 
ion? Not at all. I do not know a man in the 
North that desires division. I hope that before 
brethren take any action in the matter they may 
understand it.' 

' ' Mr. Early of Virginia: 

li( t will assure the conference that the South 
are prepared to make any concessions that they can, 
without affecting our essential principles.' 

"Dr. Smith, also of Virginia, said: 

" 'The South does not desire disunion. Come 
when it may, it shall be forced upon us.'* 

"These brief quotations indicate with sufficient 
clearness the extremely critical posture of affairs at 
the time; and they also serve as an index to the 
fears, convictions, and spirit of the parties." 



BISHOP ANDREW. 

The North had nothing against Bishop 
Andrew aside from his having married a 
woman owning slaves. As a man and as 
a minister they loved him. One speaker 
voiced the general sentiment as follows : 

4 4 With regard to the particular case before us, 
I feel constrained to make one or two remarks. 

*Not long after there was a meeting of the Northern 
delegates, and, the same hour, the Southern delegates also 
met in counsel. Disunion was in the air ever after. 



BISHOP ANDREW. 



59 



If ever there was a man worthy to fill the episcopal 
office by his disinterestedness, his love of the 
Church, his ardent, melting sympathy for all the 
interests of humanity, but above all, for his uncom- 
promising and unreserved advocacy of the- interest 
of the slave — if these are qualifications for the office 
of a bishop, then James O. Andrew is pre-eminently 
fitted to hold that office. ... If I had a hundred 
votes, and Bishop Andrew were not pressed by 
the difficulties which now rest upon him, without 
any wrong intention on his part, I am sure, he is 
the man to whom I would give them all." 

The voice of New England was heard 
through Mr. Crandle. 

1 'We have nothing to do with slavery in the 
abstract, but we believe that slavery, as it exists in 
these United States, and in the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, is morally wrong." 

Mr. Peck, of the Troy Conference, said : 

n We are happy that New England is with us to 
a man in this fearful conflict; that the united West, 
and Northland East form an insuperable barrier to 
the advance of slavery. . . . We resist, as one man, 
the advance of slavery, which, not content to be 
confined within its own geographical limits, threat- 
ens to roll its dark waves over the North. It 
claims the right to give us a slave-holding pas- 
tor — a slave-holding bishop! Do not, then, be 
surprised that we are so perfectly united in asking 
to be set back where we were a few months 
ago. . . . Give us our bishop without slaves." 



6o 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Dr. Smith voiced the South : 

"It is purely an abolition movement. In no 
other light can it be received at the South." 

Mr. Finley said : 

"I have been taught that there is no conserv- 
atism for slavery in Methodism ; there never has 
been, and I hope there never will be. If so, I will 
seek another body. I contend that when a bishop 
or minister refuses to free slaves when he can do 
it, he can be cut off from the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. I have been astonished at many of the 
reasons given by speakers on the question, particu- 
larly with regard to the subject of slavery. ... I 
believe it never could have taken the stand it has, * 
but for the connection of Methodist ministers with 
it. . . . I now say before God, that whenever the 
Methodist Episcopal Church shall sanction this 
doctrine, as much as I love her, I will leave her 
and seek another. ... I will never agree that 
slavery shall be connected in any way with the 
episcopacy." 

All this time Bishop Andrew's position 
was this : 

"If I could secure the peace of the Church by 

resigning, I would gladly do it." 

But the " Irrepressible Conflict'' would not 
down at the bidding of any one man. Com- 
promise itself could no longer avert the 
" Impending Crisis." The college of bishops, 



BISHOP ANDREW. 



6l 



after long deliberation, reported that they 
''had been unable to agree upon any plan of 
compromise to reconcile the views of the 
Northern and Southern conferences." 

But now they came forward with a written 
paper unanimously "recommending the post- 
ponement of further action in the case of 
Bishop Andrew until the ensuing General 
Conference."* 

Dr. Bangs moved to lay the paper on the 
table, saying . 

1 1 1 have used every effort in my power to effect 
a compromise, but from what has been told me by 
members from the North and South, not a vestige 
of this hope remains." 

The vote stood : ayes, 95 ; nays, 84, and 
the paper was forever dead. 

The Finley resolution then came up for 
action — the wedge that split the conference 
asunder : 

" Whereas, the Discipline of our Church for- 
bids the doing of any thing calculated to destroy 
our itinerant general superintendency ; and 

"Whereas, Bishop Andrew has become con- 
nected with slavery by marriage and otherwise, and 
this act having drawn after it circumstances which, 
in the estimation of the General Conference, will 
greatly embarrass the exercise of his office as an 



Bishop Heckling then withdrew his name from the paper. 



62 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



itinerant general superintendent, if not in some 
places entirely prevent it; therefore, 

"Resolved, That it is the sense of this General 
Conference that he desist from the exercise of this 
office so long as this impediment remains." 

The vote was taken : ayes, 1 1 1 ; nays, 69. 

Dr. Pierce gave notice that a protest 
would be entered by the Southern delegates. 

Bishop Andrew, like Job, had his trials. 
" In all this Job sinned not." The same may 
be said of Bishop Andrew, and of his friends. 
As for enemies, he does not appear to have 
had any in the conference. The 1 1 1 were 
the friends of Andrew, but the foes of slavery. 
These are voiced by Bishop Matthew 
Simpson : 

"It was one of the most painful acts of my 
life, that I felt obliged to cast my vote against him 
in 1844." — Life of Andrew, p. 286. 



-ONE WHO WAS THERE." 

If it were not that the readers of our 
Church papers have had for some time past 
a surfeit, it may be, of literature under the 
significant title; or caption of - Change of 
Name," I might give this, -my piece," a 
similar heading. But as a kind of handle let 



u ONE WHO WAS THERE." 



63 



the following be my introduction, " I also 
will show mine opinion." (Job xxxii, 10.) 

We know that forty-one years ago the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in the United 
States was virtually, and forty years ago 
actually, by mutual consent of both parties, 
divided into two distinct Churches ; and that 
the legitimate Church-character of each was 
subsequently confirmed by the courts of the 
United States ; and also by the Cape May 
Convention, or Commission of the two con- 
tracting parties. The question has often been 
asked, "What was the cause of this separa- 
tion ?" and the most frequent answer to this 
question has been, 1 ' Slavery'' while some 
have been so ungenerous or unjust as to 
say, "The Methodists of the South had be- 
come so implicated in the 1 evil of slavery ' as 
to resort to separation from the North to 
evade or prevent the application of the law 
of the Church upon that subject." Again it 
has been alleged, with perhaps equal unfair- 
ness, that the " fanatical abolitionism of the 
North caused this separation." But, as one 
who was there, and who has read and heard 
with painful attention all that has been said 
and written about our separation as a Church, 
none of the above answers are true in fact. 
From the beginning an element in the Meth- 



6 4 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



odist Church, respectable for numbers and 
character, had stood avowedly opposed to 
slavery. This sentiment with those who 
held it amounted to a conviction of duty to 
God and humanity to oppose the institution 
in all its forms, but especially in its connec- 
tions with the Church, and more especially 
as related to our preachers. In course of 
time, slavery, or rather the abolition of slavery, 
became a popular political question in the 
non-slaveholding States, and at the time of 
the meeting of our General Conference in 
1844 the whole Northern mind had become 
so infected and excited upon the general 
topic of slavery and emancipation that the 
Northern delegates in the General Confer- 
ence felt themselves compelled to adopt the 
measures which characterized their legisla- 
tion, if we may so call it, upon the appeal of 
Harding and the case of Bishop Andrew. 
This action on the part of the large North- 
ern majority called forth that masterly pro- 
test of the Southern minority, the correctness 
and justice of which was admitted by the 
majority. But what could they do ? Distrac- 
tion and disruption in the conferences and 
societies of the North must be the conse- 
quence, if they should do less than they had 
done ; and the same in the South if the doings 



" ONE WHO WAS THERE. 



65 



of the majority should be submitted to. What 
could such a body of intelligent Christian 
ministers do to meet the exigencies of the 
case other than in the spirit of brotherly love 
to come to terms for a peaceable separation 
of ecclesiastical jurisdiction? This was done, 
and the separation was consummated in 
strict agreement with the plan recommended 
by the almost unanimous vote of the General 
Conference of 1844. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
organized by the provisions of the highest 
authority of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
owes its existence, as a separate Church 
organization, to the wisdom and brotherly 
forbearance of as noble a band of Christian 
men as ever met to transact business for the 
Church of Christ. It exists because, in the 
godly judgment of that peerless conference 
of 1844, it was most for the glory of God, in 
carrying out the mission of Methodism, that 
such a division of territory and work should 
take place, and it was emphatically said, and 
with equal emphasis responded to, " We will 
still be brethren beloved" And so we are; 
and God has greatly blessed us both, North 
and South, notwithstanding the weaknesses 
of some on both sides. 

But what has all this to do with the chang- 

6 



66 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



ing of our name ? Why, just this. You see 
we came by it legitimately and honorably and 
for good cause. The word "South" was ap- 
pended simply because the " Plan " contem- 
plated our unmolested occupancy of the 
Southern part of the Master's vineyard, and 
that we have not confined ourselves to it, is 
no fault of ours, we think. God has blessed 
us — is blessing us, in the work of our hands. 
Why then drop any part of our name ? I sup- 
pose that the first man that bore the name 
i& Berry man 9 9 was either a cultivator or ven- 
der of berries. Is that any reason why his 
decendants should continue to follow the 
same occupation or change their name ? Or 
should any odium attach to the name be- 
cause of its origin ? Are not the daintiest 
dishes of our tables made so with the fruits 
of the garden ? Even so the South — our 
South — has enriched the history of our Meth- 
odism with the sweetest perfumes. At the 
first session of the Indian Mission Confer- 
ence, held in the Fall of 1844, Bishop Morris 
presided. He and I roomed together, slept 
in the same bed, talked together, and he 
said to me, " If I were asked the question, 
Where do you find the best type of Wesleyan 
Methodism? I should unhesitatingly say, In 
the Southern conferences. 99 And he was 



« ONE WHO WAS THERE." 



6/ 



not alone among those who then filled high 
places in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
this opinion of Southern Methodism. 

If we must still maintain a separate ex- 
istence as a Church, then let us spread our 
banner to the breeze with Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, written upon it in capital let- 
ters. But if the time should come, as I be- 
lieve it will, when unity of action and unity 
of name shall be re-established among the 
Methodists of this country, I shall greatly 
rejoice, for I have never been of the number 
who believe we can better promote the build- 
ing up of the kingdom of Christ among men 
by a continued division of forces. Time was 
when circumstances justified the separation, 
but has not that time about passed ? The 
men who composed the General Conference 
of 1844, as far as I can now remember, are 
all dead, with the exception of Dr. J. B. Mc- 
Ferrin, of Nashville, and this writer, and so 
also are the ecclesiastical belligerents who 
carried on the Church war after the adjourn- 
ment of the conference of 1844. In the heat 
of the strife, there were positions assumed 
and doctrines advanced, which few, if any, of 
the survivors on either side would now justify. 
I could say much here to explain what I 
mean ; but not now. I shall vote against the 



68 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



proposed change of name, for I am no more 
ashamed of the suffix "South" in my Church 
name than of the affix " Berry " in my sur- 
name. J. C. Berryman. 



MOTIVES IN THE MEASURE. 

An examination into this subject, through 
a period of more than forty years, has con- 
vinced the writer that the division in 1844 
was not at that time a schism. There was a 
pressure, a necessity, that justified the sep- 
aration. The " impending crisis 99 was upon 
the land. The " irrepressible conflict " agi- 
tated the people from Maine to Texas. 
Christians were not, could not be, exempt. 
But he has studied men to little profit, and 
knows little of the science of mental philoso- 
phy, who can impugn the motives of the 
grave divines composing the General Con- 
ference in 1844 — the last Conference of the 
undivided Church. In all history there has 
been no better assembly since the Disciples 
were scattered abroad from Jerusalem. 

The Louisville Convention, though smaller 
in number, was made up of similar material, 
in 1845. In both bodies the salvation of 
souls and the glory of God — the good of 
the world — were the controlling motives — the 



MOTIVES IN THE MEASURE. 



69 



mainsprings to action. True, the men in 
these bodies differed in judgment — saw things 
in different lights and from different stand- 
points. But their honesty of purpose need 
not be called in question. 

The separation of the original Methodist 
Episcopal Church into two bodies was the 
result of opposing views that could not then 
be harmonized. The emergencies of the 
times were imperative for action. As action 
could not be delayed, the split came ; could 
not be avoided by any known method of pro- 
cedure. " It came to pass" 

In that council of great men, all gave heed 
to Dr. Olin. Taken all in all, he has never 
been excelled in American Methodism. 
Then, he knew both sections as no other 
man on that floor knew them — by long resi- 
dence. A native of the North, identified 
therewith by birth, and education, and pres- 
ent residence, he was prepared to speak for 
his section, but having been " born again " 
in the South, and having there taught their 
youth and having preached and labored ex- 
tensively with the people, he knew both them 
and their surroundings : and viewing the 
whole field he avers " that the difficulties 
now upon them were unmanageable "he 
did not see how Northern men could yield 



70 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



their ground, nor Southern men theirs M — 
4 4 he believed that there was not a man of 
them that would not even die if thereby he 
could heal this division." 

Dr. Durbin, another John-the-Baptist sort 
of man, said, "he believed that the brethren 
of all parties would sacrifice every thing but 
principle for the continued unity of the 
Church — the gallant ship exposed to a dan- 
gerous rock in the South, and an equally 
dangerous one in the North." 

Reader, let us be glad we were not there, 
out in a rising storm — "men's hearts failing 
them for fear." 11 It does not become either 
Methodism now to condemn severely those 
fathers of our Church, whose position we 
can scarcely appreciate." — Dr. Myers in 
" Disruption of Methodism." 

After a catastrophe how easy to cast 
blame upon somebody else ! This holds true 
in disasters on land and sea. Even mediocre 
captains imagine they see wherem a Caesar 
blundered. We are frank to confess that, 
in the separation of 1844-45, we can not find 
one party more to blame than the other. 
Blame does not attach at all. When a cy- 
clone swept down my neighbor's house one 
dark night, and whirled one of the boys into 
a barn-lot and another into a field, there was 



MOTIVES IN THE MEASURE. 



7* 



no quarrel as to who was to blame for the 
separation ! Strange to say the boys were 
left alive, and but little hurt. But they re- 
mained friendly, and together fixed up the 
family roof-tree again. There was no blame 
for their separation ; had they become es- 
tranged and antagonistic, as the two Meth- 
odisms have done, then there would have 
been blame for family schism. The Churches 
are not to blame for the separation, but for 
not coming together again after the storm 
that swept them asunder had passed away ; 
the schism came after the separation. 

One of the calmest minds in the noted 
movements pertaining to the division in 
1844 says : " If the plan of separation had 
been carried out in good faith and Christian 
feeling on both sides, it would scarcely have 
.. been felt any more than the division of 
an annual conference/' — Bishop Thos. A. 
Morris. 

The men of 1844-45 never for a moment 
entertained a thought of the fell conse- 
quences of the storm then rising ; it was be- 
yond their ken, just as were the strange 
freaks of the storm that swept down the 
farm-house, of which I have spoken above. 

The Cape May Commission, made up of 
chosen representative men of both Churches 



72 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



in 1876, unanimously held — just what the 
Supreme Court had held — that the plan of 
separation was a " solemn league and cove- 
nant " between fair-minded and honorable 
Christian gentlemen in their position of trust 
for the Church, in view of the threatening 
storm then rising on the land — the full conse- 
quences of which could not be foreseen. 

That storm having passed, and the cause 
of that storm (slavery) having been forever 
put at rest, it remains for us to adjust our- 
selves to the new order of things both in 
Church and Nation. 



CAUSE OF SEPARATION. 

This was human slavery. From the first 
the Methodists took ground against it and 
sought its " extirpation/' Wesley, Clarke, 
Coke, Asbury — the whole hive — were a unit 
on this question. The pioneer preachers 
were set against it; they differed only as to 
the manner of attack. Abolition, emancipa- 
tion, colonization, elevation, etc., were sever- 
ally discussed, and each had its advocates ; 
but these vied with each other in putting a 
ban upon slavery itself ; it was to all a wrong 
against nature, to many " the sum of all vil- 



CA USE OF SEPARA TION. 73 

lainies." But here, as elsewhere, was ex- 
emplified the truth of Pope's lines: 

" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace. " 

Accustomed to the 1 4 peculiar institution " 
from infancy, some Southerners came to re- 
gard the subject with leniency, and to think 
slaveholders might become good Methodists 
and still hold on to their slaves ; and then 
that slave-holding members might become 
preachers without any particular blame, and 
finally that a preacher might become a bishop 
and still hold his slaves. True the Discipline 
of the Church of their choice condemned 
slavery and forbade 4< the buying of men, 
women, and children with an intention to en- 
slave them." But then they eased their 
minds with the salvo that the slaves were 
already in bondage, and hence to buy a slave 
already in bondage did not worst his condi- 
tion ; and to hold slaves that came by in- 
heritance was not wrong, since the State laws 
did not allow the emancipated slaves to en- 
joy freedom. (The writer was once a slave- 
holding Methodist preacher, and understands 
whereof he affirms.) Slavery grew in favor 
with Southern politicians. 

7 



74 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



But to English and Northern minds these 
things appeared in an unfriendly light. They 
looked upon slavery as contrary to nature 
and the teachings of Christ, and that it must 
be " extirpated " — plucked up by the root! 
No place was to be given it in the Church 
of God, no, not for an hour! These were 
backed by moralists and politicians of all 
parties in Europe and elsewhere, except in 
the Southern States. It required no great 
sagacity to see that slavery was doomed to 
extinction in America — peaceably, if possible ; 
if not peaceably, then by forcible abolition 
by the body politic, or worst of all by ulti- 
mate insurrection and slaughter never before 
equaled in the history of the world. As 
good citizens and Christians we should feel 
thankful to the Ruler of nations that we 
escaped the latter dreadful alternative ! The 
abolition of slavery was the great event and 
the redeeming feature of the late war be- 
tween the States North and South. Men may 
have had other plans and purposes, but this, 
as events have shown, was the plan and pur- 
pose of Providence : 

" Blind unbelief is sure to err 

And scan His works in vain; 
God is his own interpreter, 
And he will make it plain." 



CAUSE OF SEPARATION. 



75 



There is no question that the disruption 
of the original Methodist Episcopal Church 
had much to do in hastening the War of 
Emancipation, as did the marvelous circula- 
tion of the book " Uncle Tom's Cabin. " 
These were means to an end ; and men have 
often " builded wiser than they knew." The 
end, however, is never concealed from the 
all-seeing eye. 

The Church, much more alive and sensi- 
tive than the State, felt the pressure first; 
and in the Church there was no branch more 
alive and sensitive than the Methodists. As 
Chalmers has said, 44 Methodism is Christi- 
anity in earnest and it was hers first to feel 
the throes of the emancipation earthquake. 

The case of Bishop Andrew was an occa- 
sion for much ado about slavery. But dis- 
ruption was already at work in New Eng- 
land ere the Andrew case came on. The 
New England Methodists were already bolt- 
ing from the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
because she tolerated slavery within her 
pales, before the General Conference in 
1844. Indeed, it was the New England wave 
that rolled down upon the South, that created 
the furor there. It was not Bishop Andrew 
that split the Church in twain; it was slavery, 
which, though condemned in the Discipline, 



7 6 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



found a place and even apologists within its 
pale. But the sentiment of the North (and 
of the Christian world, for that matter) had 
crystallized and thrown down slavery as an 
impurity foreign to a true civilization. The 
case, Christianity vs. Slavery, admitted of but 
one verdict at the bar of public Christian 
conscience, and slavery was outlawed forever. 

In the Bishops' Quadrennial Address, 
1840, occur these words in relation to move- 
ments in New England Methodism: 4< Many 
of the preachers who were favorably disposed 
to the cause of abolition, when they saw the 
extent to which it was designed to carry 
these measures, and the inevitable conse- 
quences of their prosecution, came to a pause, 
reflected, and declined their co-operation. 
They clearly perceived that the success of 
the measures would result in a division of 
the Church, and for such an event they were 
not prepared/' 

But the case of Bishop Andrew afforded 
a pretext for a grand rally of Southern Meth- 
odists. His life was eminently blameless as 
a man, a minister, and a bishop. He had 
bought no slave — had come into the posses- 
sion of slaves by marriage and bequest — 
humane to a fault in the treatment of his 
slaves — ready to resign his " general superin- 



CAUSE OF SEPARATION. 



77 



tendency" to preserve the peace of his dear 
Methodist Episcopal Church — all these things 
endeared him to his section. But the North- 
ern preachers were unwilling to receive or- 
dination and appointment at the hands of a 
slave-holding bishop. At Bishop Andrew's 
feet the line between the two sections was 
drawn. The Southern delegates signed a 
paper urging Bishop Andrew not to resign 
as bishop ; the Northern delegates, having a 
majority in the General Conference, passed a 
resolution asking him to cease to exercise 
his office as bishop till the impediment of 
slavery in his family was removed. Here- 
upon the Southern members entered a decla- 
tion that such action of the majority would 
block up their way to success in the South, 
unless they were allowed to form the South- 
ern conferences into a separate jurisdiction. 
Hereupon a committee of nine — three from 
the North, three from the South, and three 
from the Middle — were appointed to con- 
sider and devise "a constitutional plan 99 for 
a peaceable separation. These reported, and 
the united body passed, what has since be- 
come a court document, known as the "Plan 
of Separation, 99 which we give elsewhere in 
these pages.* Under the circumstances, it 

*See Appendix, No. 4. 



78 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

was the best that the wisest Methodist Coun- 
cil the sun ever saw could do. The storm 
was all abroad ; the object was to save New 
England and, at the same time, save tJie Sozith. 

In the bill filed for recovery of their share 
of the Book Concern, the Southern commis- 
sioners made it one of their pleas, M that 
differences and disagreements had sprung up 
in the Church between what was called the 
Northern and Southern members, in respect 
to the administration of the government with 
reference to the ownership of slaves by min- 
isters of the Church, of such a character and 
attended with such consequences as threat- 
ened greatly to impair its usefulness. " — (See 
Appendix, No. 7, this volume, where this plea 
is found in " Decision of the Supreme Court 
of the United States/') 



METHODISM AND SLAVERY. 

The relation of Methodism to the slave- 
trade was from the beginning one of antag- 
onism. The only exception to this was the 
case of Mr. Whitefield. Having been offered 
the assistance of slaves for building and 
altering his Orphan House in Georgia, he 
appears to have been persuaded that not 



METHODISM AND SLAVERY. 



79 



only was slave-holding right, but that the 
slave-trade itself might be looked upon fa- 
vorably. Accordingly, with a purpose to do 
good, he procured a number of slaves, and 
at his death, twenty years afterward, he was 
the owner of seventy-five slaves in connection 
with his Orphan House plantation in Georgia. 
In his will he bequeathed his estate, with all 
its " buildings, lands, and negroes" to Lady 
Huntingdon, of England. (See Simpson's 
Cyclopedia of Methodism, article "Slavery.") 
Wesley, on the other hand, had an abhor- 
rence of the whole system. In his Journal, 
February 12, 1772, he speaks of that 66 exe- 
crable sum of all villainies commonly called 
the slave-trade." This was the year in which 
Granville Sharp began his war on the traffic, 
and fifteen years before the formation of the so- 
ciety for its suppression. In 1774 he published 
his "Thoughts on Slavery," before Wilber- 
force began his agitation of the question ; and 
when Mr. Wilberforce introduced the matter 
into the English Parliament, 1791, Wesley 
wrote to him, the last letter he ever penned > 
only six days before his death, to strengthen 
him in his Herculean work: 

"Unless the divine power has raised you up to 
be as Athanasius, contra mwidum, I see not how 
you can go through your glorious enterprise in op- 



8o 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



posing that execrable villainy which is the scandal 
of religion, of England, and of human nature. 
Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, 
you will be worn out by the opposition of men 
and of devils ; but if God be for you, who can be 
against you? Are all of men together stronger 
than God? O, be not weary in well-doing! Go 
on in the name of God, and in the power of his 
might, till even American slavery, the vilest that 
ever saw the sun, shall vanish away before it." 
ik American slavery!" — See? 

No wonder that Wesley's followers, mind- 
ful of his strong testimony through his long 
life, and in his dying- week, set out for " the 
extirpation of slavery/' Nor need we be 
surprised to find the Whitefieldian view of 
slavery, when Wesleyan Methodist preachers 
see through Whitefieldian spectacles — a prof- 
fer of assistance from slave labor in the 
enervating climate along southern shores and 
swamps. 

The negroes, however, were yet in a state 
of preparation. Providence often waits ma- 
turing processes. In Church and State sla- 
very was to be tolerated yet a little while 
longer. Then, when the fit time for emanci- 
pation came, the right conditions were there. 
When God plans a campaign he knows what 
and where his generals and forces are ; for 
he has prepared them, and assigned them 



METHODISM AND SLAVERY. 



81 



their positions and service. His plans are 
deeper and wider and higher than ours. 
Wesley counseled his king not to make war 
on his American colonies, and soon after he 
counseled the colonists not to make war upon 
their king. But the storm burst in fury. 
After the eight years of war he writes: " By 
a very uncommon train of providences many 
of the provinces in North America are totally 
disjoined from the mother country, and 
erected into independent States. . . . And 
we judge it best that they should stand fast 
in the liberty [civil and ecclesiastical] where- 
with God has so strangely made them free." 

In like manner, the Lord gave liberty 
to the slaves — "captives" from the Dark 
Continent — in 1864-5. But to accomplish 
this end, great use was made of the Meth- 
odistic anti-slavery sentiment in Europe and 
America — a sentiment so deep and strong 
everywhere, except among a few Southern 
folks, as to brook no opposition. 

Wesley never used stronger language than 
when speaking of the slave-trade — " that 
execrable sum of all villainies, commonly 
called the slave-trade. I read of nothing 
like it in the heathen world, whether ancient 
or modern ; and it infinitely exceeds in every 
instance of barbarity, whatever Christian 



82 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



slaves suffer in Mohammedan countries." 
Domestic slavery in the colonies was a feeder 
of the slave-trade, including the horrors of 
the " middle passage;" and hence the war 
the early preachers, under Wesley, made 
upon slavery in America — a war that never 
ended till emancipation came through the 
dreadful war between the sections in 1861- 
65, at a cost of untold treasure and a million 
of men. 

Dr. T. O. Summers,* in the " Wesley 
Memorial Volume," thus speaks on this 
subject ; 

"Wesley was opposed to slavery, and, as might 
be expected, so was Asbury, who makes frequent 
reference to it in his Journal. It is interesting to 
note how a more familiar acquaintance with the 
institution modified his views with reference to the 
treatment of it. At first, like Dr. Coke, Asbury 
was disposed to expel every Methodist who would 
not liberate his slaves ; but he soon found that that 
would not do. He saw the expediency of procur- 
ing places of worship, wherever practicable, for 
blacks, apart from the whites. ... By pursuing 
this line of conduct Asbury and his co-laborers 
gained the confidence of the masters, and brought 
thousands of them and their slaves into the liberty 
with which Christ makes us free. In the Method- 



*Dr. Summers was a born Englishman, who long 
resided in the South. 



METHODISM AND SLAVERY. 



83 



ist Episcopal Church, South, alone, there were 
some two hundred thousand colored communicants, 
when the institution was abolished. The masters 
loved him and showed him great hospitality, and 
the slaves almost worshiped him as their devoted 
friend. Nothing is hazarded in saying that Bishop 
Asbury did more than any other man to elevate 
the servile progeny of Ham, and to prepare them 
for the freedom which they now possess ; and if his 
wise method had been pursued by all concerned, 
the same issue would have been reached without 
that fratricidal war which desolated this fair herit- 
age, and decimated its population." 

But others have had opinions different 
from Dr. Summers — could not see how this 
cancer upon the body politic and upon the 
body ecclesiastic was to escape the surgeon's 
knife. 

Evidence of such forebodings of coming 
trouble are found in the writings of many 
thoughtful men and women of that period. 
There was thoughtful unrest on the part of 
thousands in Southland upon the question 
that shadowed the future of both Church and 
State. * The throes of an earthquake were 
feared ; human agencies seemed powerless 
to solve the question or avert the impending 
doom. A hope remained that out of the 
gathering gloom some good might come — 
come to all — by the providence of Him whose 



84 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



reign takes in all times and peoples, and 
without whose notice not a sparrow falleth to 
the ground. 

"If it be possible, let this cup pass from 
me," said the agonizing Savior in dark 
Gethsemane. That was not the only unwel- 
come cup ever given by the Divine Hand. 
Nations and Churches and families, and indi- 
vidual men and women, all have, at some 
time or other, a sad experience. But lo ! of 
the Savior it was prophesied, "He shall see 
of the travail of his soul and shall be satis- 
fied !" Who can doubt the truth of this 
while looking, not only on the Church here, 
but up into heaven ? " These light afflictions 
work for us an eternal weight of glory/' 
as individuals. The United States, as a na- 
tion, is bettered by the war. May Methodism 
profit from her "cup" also. 



EARLY RULE ON SLAVERY. 

The first allusion to emancipation in the 
proceedings of the conferences is recorded 
in the minutes at Baltimore, 1780: 

" Question : Ought not this conference to re- 
quire those traveling preachers who hold slaves to 
give promise to set them free? 

44 Answer: Yes." 



EARLY RULE ON SLAVERY. 



85 



This was for the preachers ; to the mem- 
bers their utterance is : 

11 We pass our disapprobation on all our friends 
who keep slaves, and advise their freedom." 

4 4 This was three years before slavery was abol- 
ished in Massachusetts, and four years before it 
was abolished in Rhode Island and Connecticut." — 
McTyeires History, p. 375. 

In 1783, the year peace was declared be- 
tween England and her North American Col- 
onies — i. e., the United States of America — . 
there were in this country 13,742 Meth- 
odists reported to conference ; of these 1,623 
were north of Mason and Dixon's line, and 
12,117 south thereof. {Stevens s History, 
Vol. II; McTyeires History, p. 314.) That 
is, the South outnumbered the North more 
than sevenfold. Had the relative strength 
been reversed, the antislavery legislation of 
Methodism would not have been delayed 
till 1844, but would at once have swept 
slave-holders from at least all positions of 
honor and trust in the Church. 

Again, in 1784, at the Christmas Confer- 
ence in Baltimore, still stronger ground was 
taken ; but these stringent rules were not 
to be enforced in States where the laws did 
not admit of emancipation. The minutes on 
this subject closed thus : 



86 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



' 1 N. B — We hold in the deepest abhorrence the 
pi'actice of slavery ; and shall not cease to seek its 
destruction by all wise and pnident means. " 

This was fair warning, to say the least of 
it ; and it need never have been misunder- 
stood. The genius of Methodism, this ! 

In 1787, there is a minute to which no 
Christian could object. 

11 Question 17. What direction shall we give for 
the promotion of the spiritual welfare of the col- 
ored people ? 

"Anszver. We conjure all our ministers and 
preachers by the love of God and the salvation of 
souls, and do require them by all the authority 
that is invested in us, to leave nothing undone for 
the spiritual benefit and salvation of them within 
their respective circuits and districts ; and, for this 
purpose, to embrace every opportunity of inquir- 
ing into the state of their souls, and to unite in 
*■ society those who appear to have a real desire of 
fleeing from the wrath to come ; and to meet such 
in class, and to exercise the whole Methodist Dis- 
cipline among them." 

In 1789, the following clause, not in the 
former rules, was inserted in the "General 
Rules, " among the things forbidden: 

"The buying or selling of the bodies and souls 
of men, women, or children, with the intention to 
enslave them." 

This phrase was changed in 1792, leaving 



EARLY RULE ON SLAVERY. 



87 



out the words 44 of the bodies and souls/ 9 as 
superfluous. 

In 1796, the tone of the minutes is keener 
than ever: 

\ 4 Question. What regulation shall be made for the 
extirpation of the crying evil of African slavery ? 

"Answer. We declare we are more than ever 
convinced of the great evil of African slavery, which 
still exists in the United States, and do most ear- 
nestly/ 9 etc. "No slave-holder shall be received 
into society till the preacher has spoken to him freely 
and faithfully on the subject of slavery." "Every 
member who sells a slave shall immediately, after 
full proof, be excluded the society," etc. 

These deliverances are clean-cut as the 
diamond, and preclude a fine-spun theory 
maintained fifty years afterward, that they, 
were formulated against the foreign importa- 
tion of negroes ; and many were the cases 
in which a Methodist was disciplined in his 
Church for dealing in slaves with his neigh- 
bor. Wesley and preachers from England, as 
well as many reared in America, bore testi- 
mony against the evil. The Methodist con- 
science was antislavery, and not unfrequently 
were slaves set free by masters who were at 
unrest on the subject. Compromises were 
attempted, to give repose to others who 
owned slaves. But, to the majority, the 



88 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

- » 

ever-returning question of 1784 remained to 

be answered : 

' 4 What methods can we take to extirpate 
slavery ?" 

[Extirpate — to pluck up by the roots. — Webster.] 

A few there were who were willing to 
leave all this to Caesar. But the majority 
were at unrest about it. Starting with Wes- 
ley's declaration that the African slave-trade 
was the " sum of all villainies," they readily 
came to the conclusion that if the tree was 
corrupt, so the fruit must be. They believed 
that right and wrong are not geographical — 
but malum hie, malum ubique — as wrong to 
tear asunder family ties in Richmond as 
in Congo. 

Their conviction was strengthened by the 
opinions of statesmen : 

Lord Brougham: — "Tell me not of rights; 
talk not of the property of the planter in his 

slaves. V 

Washington: — 4 T never mean, unless some 
particular circumstances should compel me to it, to 
possess another slave by purchase, it being among 
my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which 
slavery, in this country, may be abolished by law/' 

Jefferson: — 4 4 There must be an unhappy in- 
fluence on the manners of our people produced by 
the existence of slavery. . . . Indeed, I trem- 



EARL Y RULE ON SLA VER V. 89 

ble for my country when I reflect that God is just; 
that his justice can not sleep forever." 

Madison : — 44 Save our country from reproaches, 
and our posterity from the imbecility ever attend- 
ant on a country filled with slaves." 

Monroe: — 4 4 We have found this evil has preyed 
upon the very vitals of our Union, and has been 
prejudicial to all the States in which it has existed." 

Patrick Henry:— 4 4 It would rejoice my very 
soul that every one of my fellow-beings were 
emancipated. . . . Believe me, I shall honor 
the Quakers for their noble efforts to abolish 
slavery." 

Virginia Convention, 1774: — 4 'The abolition 
of domestic slavery is the greatest object of desire 
in these colonies, where it was unhappily intro- 
duced in their infant state." — Am. Archives, I]/ 
Series, Vol. I, p. 696. 

North Carolina Convention, 1774: — "Re- 
solved, That we will not import any slave or 
slaves . . . after the first day of November 
next." — Ibid., p. 735. 

Georgia Convention, January, 1775: — "We 
hereby declare our disapprobation and abhorrence 
of the unnatural practice of slavery in America." — 
Ibid., p. 1 1 36. 

Thus stimulated, the anti-slavery element 
became " more than ever convinced. " But 
it is not to be denied that there was a grow- 
ing number of those wearing Whitefieldian 
glasses. These saw that the barbarians late 



go THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

from Africa were being civilized and Christian- 
ized in their new surroundings. These were 
not for disturbing the repose of communities 
by a warfare upon the "peculiar institution. " 
To them slavery was a " vexed question/' 
Condemning slavery in the abstract, they 
thought it reasonable to leave the question 
to Caesar ; not having any hand in bringing 
the slaves into bondage, they would leave 
them where they found them, but would try 
to ameliorate their condition by giving mas- 
ters and slaves alike the blessed Gospel. But 
these when pressed on the subject were 
forced to admit slavery was an evil — perhaps 
a less evil than something else. They felt 
disposed to trust Providence for a solution 
of the "vexed question." They had not 
brought the negroes into bondage ; how to 
free so many millions of them, they could not 
see. But they found all Christendom awaking 
to an opposition to slavery, as violative of the 
best instincts of humanity ; they saw it was 
not in harmony with the "free and equal" 
clause in the American Declaration of Inde- 
pendence — that it was being circumscribed 
in its geographical limits ; in a word, they 
saw slavery was doomed to pass away, as an 
eclipse from the sun. 

The influence of the Methodist move- 



EARL Y R ULE ON SLA VER Y. 



91 



ment on slavery was ever potent in England 
and America : 

"The great body which he (Wesley) thus 
founded numbered one hundred thousand at his 
death, and now counts its members in England and 
America by millions. But the Methodists them- 
selves were the least result of the Methodist re- 
vival. Its action upon the Church broke the 
lethargy of the clergy ; and the * 'evangelical move- 
ment," which found representatives in Newton and 
Cecil within the pale of the establishment, made 
the fox-hunting parson and the absentee rector at 
last impossible. A new philanthropy reformed our 
prisons, infused clemency and wisdom into our 
penal laws, abolished the slave-trade, and gave 
the first impulse to popular education." — Green's 
History of the English People. 

Revolutions go forward ; and after deal- 
ing death to the African slave trade — Wes- 
ley's " sum of all villainies " — Methodism 
was not likely to rest while domestic slavery 
had a place in society. 

Illustrative of the opposition of the earlier 
Methodist preachers, take the following ac- 
count of John Ray : " He was noted for his 
opposition to slavery, and . . . would sel- 
dom lodge at the house of a slave-holder, if 
he could avoid it. . . . When invited home 
with a stranger, his interrogatory would be, 
* Have you any negroes ?' When a preacher 



9 2 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



was proposed for admission : . . . * Has 
he any negroes ?' " 

Also, take the case of James Axley, for 
many years a presiding elder, the records of 
whose quarterly conferences often contain 
the question, " Have we any negro busi- 
ness ?" If these things occurred in the South, 
what was done in the North ? Brother Cart- 
wright was over there ! 

The wide dissemination of Methodism 
throughout the United States, the "free and 
equal " clause in the Declaration of In- 
dependence, the antislavery teachings of 
Friends, or Quakers, and other religious 
bodies, and the weight of foreign public sen- 
timent against " the peculiar institution," — all 
combined to insure the freedom of the slave 
sooner or later ; it was only a question of 
time and manner. 

In the General Conference, 1800, " Brother 
Snethen moved that from this time forth 
no slave holder shall be admitted into the 
Methodist Episcopal Church." "Brother 
Bloodgood moved that all negro children be- 
longing to members of the Methodist So- 
ciety, who shall be born after the Fourth of 
July (1800) shall be emancipated; males at 

years ; females at years." Both 

motions were M negatived." 



EARLY RULE ON SLAVERY. 



93 



At this same conference (1800) a rule 
was adopted allowing colored preachers to 
be elected to deacons' orders, " but it ap- 
pears not to have been inserted in the Dis- 
cipline, owing to the opposition in the 
South. " — Bishop Simpsons Cyclopedia. 

It was also agreed that " each annual 
conference might make its own rules about 
buying slaves. ,, This in 1800; but at the 
next General Conference, " in 1804, a reso- 
lution was passed to leave it to the bishops 
to frame a section on Slavery to suit the 
Northern and Southern States. Bishop As- 
bury refused to act under this ordter of the 
conference, and the matter was dropped." — 
Disruption of Methodism, p. 83. 

Slavery still claimed attention in the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1820. Thomas Griffin, 
a delegate from the Mississippi Conference, 
tired of the subject, used some vigorous, if 
not very graceful, words: " It appears that 
some of the Northern brethren are willing 
to see us all damned and doubly damned — 
rammed, jammed, and crammed into a 
forty-six-pounder, and touched off into eter- 
nity !" — History of Methodism. 

In 1824, the General Conference author- 
ized the bishops to send a delegate with fra- 
ternal regards to the British Conference. 



94 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Two years later the bishops met to do this ; 
Soule and McKendree favored William Ca- 
pers, a slave-holder; Hedding and George 
favored Wilbur Fisk, a non-slave-holder ; and 
as neither party would yield, the matter 
went over to the next year. But at their 
next meeting, Bishop Roberts would not give 
a casting vote on this matter, and so it was 
deferred to the ensuing General Conference. 
This body voted : First ballot, Capers 75, 
Fisk 67; no election. Second ballot, Ca- 
pers 82, Fisk 72 ; and Capers was declared 
elected. Thus the agitation never slumbered. 
Even good and great men err in little things. 

We copy from " Cyclopedia of Meth- 
odism/' and ask special attention, as the 
great split of 1844 occurred under the pro- 
visions herewith detailed : 

"Slight changes were made in 1812, 18 16, and 
1820. All these changes indicate the difficulties 
which were encountered in" the slave-holding States 
in attempting to execute the Discipline among the 
membership of the Church, and showing the con- 
flict which existed between Northern and Southern 
minds. In 1824 the chapter was so amended as 
to read : 

" ' 1. We declare we are as much as ever con- 
vinced of the great evil of slavery ; therefore, no 
slave-holder shall be eligible to any official station % 
in our Church hereafter where the laws of the State 



EARLY RULE ON SLAVERY. 



95 



in which he lives will admit of emancipation, and 
permit the liberated slave to enjoy freedom. 

" '2. When any traveling preacher becomes an 
owner of a slave or slaves by any means, he shall 
forfeit his ministerial character in our Church un- 
less he execute, if it be practical, a legal emanci- 
pation of such slaves, conformably to the laws of 
the State in which he lives. 

" 4 3. All our preachers shall prudently enforce 
upon our members the necessity of teaching their 
slaves to read the Word of God ; and to allow 
them time to attend upon the public worship of 
God on our regular days of divine service. 

" '4. Our colored preachers and official mem- 
bers shall have all the privileges which are usual to 
others in the district and quarterly conferences, 
where the usages of the country do not forbid it. 
And the presiding elder may hold for them a 
separate district conference, where the number of 
colored local preachers will justify it. 

■* '5. The annual conferences may employ col- 
ored preachers to travel and preach where their 
services are judged necessary ; provided, that no 
one shall be so employed without having been 
recommended according to the form of Discipline.' " 

"In this form the Discipline remained till 
after the separation of the Southern conferences 
in 1845." 

In 1832, two bishops were elected. Votes 
cast, 223; necessary to a choice, 112. For 
Andrew, 140; scattering, 83. For Emory, 
135 ; scattering, 88. Twelve years later a 



9 6 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



cyclone elevated Andrew aloft, a gazing 
stock for millions — a cyclone that began its 
motion long years before Andrew was born ! 

The General Conference of 1836 had its 
share ot the slavery issue. Sundry memo- 
rials from the North were referred to a com- 
mittee, whose report closed with the following 
resolution : 

14 Resolved, That it is inexpedient to make 
any change in our Book of Discipline respecting 
slaver} 7 , and we deem it improper to further agitate 
the subject in the General Conference at present." 

Adopted. This was at Cincinnati. 

Two of the members of the body attended 
an antislavery meeting in the city, and ut- 
tered their sentiments against "the peculiar 
institution." For this they were censured by 
the conference: Ayes, 122 ; noes, 11. 

At every point this conference put to 
record their opposition to the agitation of the 
slavery question. Thereupon the antislavery 
men "turned to the Gentiles" — the politi- 
cians — where they soon found "'aid and com- 
fort/' But New England went farther than 
this, and in annual and quarterly conferences 
embarrassed business by their efforts "to 
testify in a conference capacity/' Presiding 
officers were badgered sometimes beyond 
their patience. The reformers had their 



EARL Y R ULE ON SLA VER Y. 97 

organ, the Ishmaelitish " Zioris Watchman" 
that made things lively, if not lovely, all 
round. Dr. Bangs and Bishop Hedding ably 
tried to arrest the rising tide. This tide 
surged against the General Conference of 
1840, as the ." Address' ' of the bishops and 
the " Response' 9 of the conference and the 
"Letter" from the British brethren all abun- 
dantly show. But the conservative party had 
the majority. 

The Abolitionists affirmed all slave-holding 
sinful, and that slave-holders had no business 
in the Church. Having lost all hope of car- 
rying such sentiments to their legitimate 
issue in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
they prepared to secede. So, in 1842, the 
" Wesleyan Methodist Church" was organ- 
ized. The new Church accepted their old 
doctrines, but made slave-holding a bar to 
membership. 

Many believed that, now the agitators 
had left, the old Church would have peace. 
There was a calm — the calm before the 
storm. Two clouds were rising, one in the 
political, the other in the religious sky. Their 
junction portended a hurricane. Whole con- 
ferences wheeled into a new line : 

"Lucius C. Matlack, D. D., . . . was 
licensed to preach, and recommended to the Phila- 

9 



98 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



delphia Annual Conference, in 1837. Because 
identified with 'modern abolitionism/ he was re- 
jected at that conference by a unanimous vote, both 
in 1837 and m l8 3 8 - ... In 1867, the Phila- 
delphia Annual Conference, by a unanimous vote, 
reversed their former position of thirty years pre- 
vious, and admitted him into their body. Cyclo- 
poedia of Methodism, p. 568. 

In 1850 the Methodist Church, South, 
struck out of its Discipline all special legis- 
lation on the subject of slavery; in 1864 the 
Methodist Episcopal Church 11 unqualifiedly 
made slave-holding a bar to membership. " — 
McTyeire s Hist., p. 389. 

Both Methodisms receded from the origi- 
nal rule ; was there not a blunder in remov- 
ing the old " land-marks ?" Neither branch 
accomplished any good by its action. God 
has swept the bone of contention beyond the 
arena of strife, never to disturb us more! 

Thus it appears that the state does a ser- 
vice for the Church which she can not ac- 
complish for herself! 

" In 1864 it [the Methodist Episcopal Church] 
changed the general rule to slave-holding, buying 
or selling slaves ; yet it may be questioned whether 
the new rule was ever enforced by the expulsion of 
a slave-holder. It is, indeed, a fact that there were 
slave-holders in that Church, down to the day that 
President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation 



EARL Y RULE ON SLA VER Y. 99 



took effect, when both Churches ceased simultaneously 
to be slave holding CkurcJies" — Dr. Myers, Dis- 
ruption, p. 19. 

1 ' The British Wesleyans . . . had slave- 
holders in their societies till the moment of univer- 
sal (British) emancipation," — Dr. Bond, in New 
York Advocate. 

The principle lies deep in human nature, and 
in the essence of Christianity, that in the great 
institutions of society there is nothing common, or 
unclean : that the natural order of the family and 
state are as truly ordained of God as those that 
are more strictly ecclesiastical ; that in this sense 
the nation is greater than the Church — that is, the 
nation, in the sense of a society comprehending 
all the diverse elements of social life, is greater 
than the Church, in the sense of a clerical corpora- 
tion which, great and beneficent as it is, compre- 
hends only a few." — Dean Stanley. 

The repressive measures attempted in the 
General Conferences at Cincinnati and Pitts- 
burg, only made the anti-slavery North more 
determined, and caused them to seek through 
political channels what they despaired of 
effecting through Church aid — " the extirpa- 
tion of slavery." 

The pressure increased, till in 1844 it dis- 
rupted the Church, and in 1861 it rent the 
nation, at least for a time. 

But American slavery was buried in a sea 



IOO THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

of blood, and its burial made the union still 
possible. Now, that slavery is buried and 
the reunion of the severed States accom- 
plished, why may we not have a reunion of 
the Methodist Churches? Methodists com- 
ing among us from England see no just rea- 
son why there should be in our republic two 
Methodisms of like faith and Discipline ; 
other Christians can not understand it ; out- 
siders are offended by it ; it is a stone of 
stumbling to many who otherwise would be 
Methodists in name, as they are in belief. 
This is especially the case all along the bor- 
der work from Baltimore on the East to San 
Francisco on the West. Along the Lakes 
and down by the Gulf, the evils of our di- 
vision may not be so sensibly felt. But the 
writer, after mixing with the people in twelve 
States, knows whereof he speaks ; the evils 
in the " Border Work " do cry to Heaven. 



SOMETHING WORSE THAN SEPARATION. 

The evils of separation have been great. 
The alienation of brethren, the setting up of 
" altar against altar " in town and country 
and mission field — all these evils and many 
more — cry out for redress. While looking at 



* 



SOMETHING WORSE THAN SEPARATION. IOI 

them, many are prone to forget that there 

could have been something worse ! 

61 God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform." 

An abject surrendering (murder) of honest 
convictions could have but debased the moral 
giants of 1844 and 1845, an< ^ rendered them 
contemptible in their own eyes and in the 
estimation of the world. Whenever a man 
surrenders his self-respect and the respect 
of his fellows, he becomes as worthless as a 
watch without main-spring or balance. 

In the separation both parties maintained 
their honest convictions, and bore away the 
respect and confidence of themselves and of 
all men. The political compromise meas- 
ures that would have left slavery an ever- 
lasting irritant in the government — the nest 
egg of another San Domingo massacre — 
would, in the long run, have brought greater 
injuries than did the Civil War of 1861-65. 

With the Lord one day is as a thousand 
years, and a thousand years as one day. 
He sees the end from the beginning. Al- 
ready the North and the South and all na- 
tions under heaven begin to admit that there 
could have been something worse than our 
great Civil War. Our Union is stronger 
since than ever before. 



102 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



So in the separation of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church into two communions. Let 
reunion be effected upon righteous terms, 
and soon all men may see a vigor and effi- 
ciency never possible under former conditions. 
For such a consummation we can afford to 
wait and toil and pray. 



HONEST OPINIONS. 

" An honest man is the noblest work of 
God." Grant and Lee were true to their 
convictions. So was Washington. They 
are honored everywhere. Wesley, Luther, 
Paul — all truly great and good men — belong 
to this category — honest men — men true to 
their convictions. A rigid analysis will show 
that the General Conference of 1844 and 
the Convention of 1845 were made up of as 
true men as ever met in council. No one 
can read their addresses on those occasions 
without feeling that their souls were fired by 
honest and honorable sentiments which they 
were not ashamed to own before the world. 
Does any one doubt the sublime patriotism 
of either Webster or Hayne as they con- 
fronted each other in Congress, in their re- 
nowned debate upon Massachusetts and 
South Carolina ? Does any one doubt the 



HONEST OPINIONS. 



103 



honest patriotism of Clay or Calhoun, though 
seemingly arrayed against each other in 
the United States Senate ? Patriots all these. 
No more can men of reflection doubt the 
sublime Methodistic loyalty of Bascom or Col- 
lins, of Lovick Pierce or Stephen Olin. " A 
tree is known by its fruits/ ' Peter may have 
withstood Paul, but both were chosen ves- 
sels — both enrolled in the list of apostles — 
both as honest as sunshine. So was it with 
the men who bore the brunt of debate and 
legislation in the trying days of 1844-45. 
Like the Hebrew children walking unhurt 
through the fiery furnace, the smell of fire 
was not found upon the official robes of 
James O. Andrew, his opponents themselves 
being judges. 

A careful analysis clearly shows that pub- 
lic opinion at the North was resolved on the 
overthrow — " the extirpation " — of slavery, 
Methodism was in unison with this sentiment. 
And the same careful analvsis shows that a 
majority in the South were pro-slavery — set 
for its defense. Many Methodists dwelling 
among these pro-slavery people thought it 
best to allow slavery to remain as it was, 
protected by the laws of the land, and, under 
them, by the Discipline of the Church. 
Neither North nor South could the preachers 



104 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

set themselves against public sentiment. Sla- 
very divided the people of the nation. If it 
be said that slavery was not the cause, but 
merely the occasion, of the separation, the 
answer is, and always will be, "But for the 
slavery issue, the disruption would not have 
been. ,, 

What saved the separation from the sin 
of schism was the pressure or necessity pro- 
duced by the slavery question. That out of 
the way, the Church would have remained in 
unity. Now, that no such pressure exists, 
there is no necessity to justify a longer con- 
tinued separation. The division under exist- 
ing conditions is schism, and, along the border 
work, has all the marks of schism. As such, 
it is hurtful to man, and offensive to God. 

Says Dr. E. H. Myers: 

"In prosecuting this purpose I shall show, by 
sundry arguments, that the General Conference of 
1844 was drive 77, by the settled purposes and prin- 
ciples of a large section of the Church, to elect be- 
tween the fearful disruption and disorganization at 
the North on the one hand, if it took no action on 
the pending issues involving the slavery question, 
and division, on the other hand, between the slave- 
holding and the non-slave holding conferences if it 
took such action as would satisfy Northern clamor; 
and that the majority, being from non-slave-holding 
conferences, chose the latter alternative to save its 



HONEST OPINIONS. 105 

section from disaster, and thus, by its action, trans- 
ferred the threatened damage to the South. In 
other words, the majority intended the resulting 
sequence — the breaking up of one ecumenical juris- 
diction into two jurisdictions — as an alternative to 
another sequence more disastrous to themselves. 
They intended to save Northern Methodism from 
the dissolution that impended, no matter what 
might be the result to Southern Methodism. " — 
Disruption of Methodism, p. 87. 

Again : 

"Both parties were now like two men in the 
waves, who, to escape, have seized the only plank 
at hand. It can not sustain both/' — lb. p. 93. 

In the contest of 1844 there were side 
issues, but they all grew out of the main 
issue. But for slavery they would not have 
been up for adjudication. There are always 
side issues in every contest. Sometimes men 
get lost in these side issues. It was so in 
the Senate of the United States on a memor- 
able occasion, till the big-brained Webster 
called for the reading of the " original reso- 
lution." 

The "impending crisis" — the " irrepressi- 
ble conflict" — of the politicians had stalked 
abroad and into the Church. Slavery in the 
abstract had long been discussed. In con- 



106 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



crete form it had been forced upon classes, 
quarterly conferences, and annual conferences, 
and had created trouble in every place. Now 
the question had connected itself with the 
episcopacy. By the constitution of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, episcopacy is 
general, not diocesan. Otherwise it would 
not have created the widespread excitement 
seen in 1844. Anti-slavery men were not 
willing to receive ordination at the hands of 
a bishop who held slaves — no more than at 
the hands of a bishop who was a drunkard — 
it would encourage slavery. They loathed 
slavery as the " sum of all villainies." The 
South did not regard slavery as sin per se> 
and they saw that if slavery were put into the 
category of mortal sins, the plantations would 
be closed against the Methodist itinerants, 
and that thousands of white people would 
also turn away from the Methodist Church. 
Pro arts et focis was their battle-cry. They 
held it was wrong on the part of the North 
to disturb a civil institution in the South — 
wrong to put the ban upon a " slave-holding 
bishop," or even a slave-holding member. On 
the other hand, the North held that if the 
Southern States allowed slavery, so did they 
allow the manufacture, sale, and use of spir- 
ituous liquors, and they held that moral 



BOX EST OPINIONS. 10J 

questions were not to be settled by fickle 
State legislation. 

The North more and more regarded sla- 
very, in its moral aspect, a sin, and in its civil 
relations, a blunder ; the South, looking 
through utilitarian glasses, more and more 
tolerated the institution — could not see it a 
sin or a blunder at all. If the Northern 
preachers longer tolerated slavery, especially 
in the episcopacy, they would be denied ac- 
cess to people at home ; if the Southern preach- 
ers put a ban upon slavery, they would be 
shunned in their sunny South. In a judgment 
of charity, after the lapse of more than two 
score years, the great mass of people, north 
and south, now believe both parties aimed to 
do right in 1844. 

" It is in the condition of astronomers, 
rather than in their disposition, that some 
constellations in the heavens can not be 
viewed from certain stations on the earth's 
surface." — McTyeire. Men do not always 
see themselves as others see them. A man's 
neighbors may have opinions of his. conduct 
different from those he entertains of his own 
course, and may not want to be partners in 
his trade. So matters stood, and the division 
came. The middle wall of partition, how- 
ever, is now removed ; shall the multitudes 



108 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

now keep apart, or flow together? Which 
course would result in the greater good ? 
Answer : Union. 



DEEP REGRETS AT PARTING. 

The division of the wide-spread and strong 
Church in 1844 was a cause of deep and 
general regret. Patriots, who loved their 
country, saw in this division a weakening of 
the ties that bound us together as a Nation ; 
and many regarded it as a harbinger of a 
rupture between the Free States and the 
States protecting slavery. 

While statesmen, with the exception of a 
few ultra leaders like Calhoun and Garrison, 
were lamenting the disruption of the strong- 
est religious body in the Union, they were 
not alone in their regrets : Christians of 
every name were also alarmed. If the most 
vigorous tree in the forest succumbs to the 
storm, what shall the fate of the others be? 
Such were their forebodings. And then the 
Scriptural argument, "When one member of 
Christ's body suffers, all suffer with it," was 
of force here, also ; all were exposed. 

But the Methodist world, in Europe and 
America, felt humiliated and pained at the 
spectacle exhibited in the eyes of all men. 



DEEP REGRETS AT PARTING. 1 09 

A reproach among infidels — a shame among 
Christians — a discord among themselves — it 
is no wonder they felt regrets. Brethren 
who had spent life's early morn and man- 
hood's middle day together in spreading 
Scriptural holiness over the land — men who 
had labored, and suffered, and triumphed to- 
gether — now to part company and go into 
what any reasoning man must see will in 
time become hostile camps — is it any w r onder 
these Methodists had regrets ? Bishop Soule, 
who like King Saul, was head and shoulders 
above his comrades, said : * 

"I rise, sir, at this moment, with all the calm- 
ness which the occasion requires — not the calm 
which precedes the tempest and the storm — not 
the calmness of indifference, for that can not be. 
It is, sir, the calmness of conviction ; it is the calm- 
ness of principle. There are periods, sir, in the 
history of every man, when his individual character 
can not — must not — be neutralized by the laws of 
association. Under this view, in what I shall say 
to the conference, I involve no man in my re- 
sponsibility — not my venerable colleagues — not my 
brethren from the South — not my brethren from 
the North. Brethren manifest a desire to bring 
the question to an issue, close the debate, and 
come to a vote. I ask, sir, may not action on the 
resolution be premature? I am not afraid to meet 



* Outlines only given. 



IIO 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



the calmness of deliberation anywhere — here — in 
the annual conference — in the great community 
of which we are members. But I fear the passions 
of men. The sound of the trumpet of alarm may 
go forth from this consecrated hall, and may spread 
abroad on the wings of the wind — aye of the 
whirlwind — over the length and breadth of these 
lands; but, sir, when the noise has died away, 
and the tumultuous elements have calmed to repose, 
and sober reason shall control men, a still small 
voice may be heard, not in the bellowing thunder, 
nor in the shock of the earthquake, nor in the 
howling storm — but in the hush of reflection, and 
the demand, 44 What is the cause?" Well, sir, it 
will be the province of reason and sobriety to 
answer. It will be the plain statement of facts as 
given by Bishop Andrew. Not a brother from the 
North, not a brother from the South, alleges or 
can allege any other. These facts are the cause of 
whatever alarm, whatever excitement, may spread 
through our beloved Zion and over the land. 

"Our general rule on slavery forbidding the 
buying or selling of men, women or children, with 
an intent to enslave them, forms a part of the con- 
stitution of the Church, and has stood from the be- 
ginning unchanged, as testamentary of our senti- 
ments on slavery and the slave trade. And in this 
we differ in no respect from the sentiments of our 
venerable founder and of the wisest of statesmen 
in our own nation and in other Christian countries. 
But we have never demanded emancipation in con- 
travention of civil authority, where the States would 



DEEP REGRETS A T PAR TING. 1 1 1 



not allow the liberated slave to enjoy freedom. Do 
we aim at the amelioration of slavery? How can 
we better do this than by bringing both master and 
slave under the benign influence of the blessed 
Gospel, which enforces the duties of every relation 
by the strongest possible motives? The union of 
these States, the perpetuity of our national com- 
pact, the well-being of the community of which we 
are members, should ever lie near our hearts, and 
be a subject of our prayers to the source of all our 
mercies. Can we at this eventful crisis render a 
better service to our country than by preaching 
the doctrine of the cross, and abstaining from all 
interference with relations established by law ? Sir, 
I desire these sentiments of mine to stand recorded 
when I shall sleep in the dust of the earth. I de- 
sire to leave them as a legacy to my children and 
my children's children, and to the Church, when I 
am no more. 

"The condition of the colored race never fails 
to excite my sympathy. Could I restore bleeding 
Africa to freedom I would gladly do it. If I can 
not extend to htm all the good I wish, I will never 
shut him out from the benefits which I have in 
charge to bestow — the blessings of the Gospel of 
Christ. This reflection has sustained me in the 
discharge of what I have felt to be my duty — has 
sustained me in the city and the desert waste — has 
sustained me in the North and in the South — in 
the abodes of Negroes and Indians. 

4 'The doctrine that the bishops are liable to be 
deposed at will by a simple majority of the Gen- 



112 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



eral Conference, without a form of trial, is new to 
me ; I have never heard it before, though I have been 
a member of the General Conference of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church ever since its organization. 
Bishop Andrew has been unblamable in his ministe- 
rial character — so pronounced all over this house — 
will you now depose him without a form of trial, 
without a charge, and without being allowed to an- 
swer for himself? The constitution has provided 
that no minister, no member is to be deprived of the 
right of trial ; will you depose a bishop without a 
trial ? I make this appeal to the ear of reason. 
This whole thing is going before the outside world, 
as well as the Church. You have the right, sacred 
and constitutional, to try us bishops,- every one, if 
need be ; to find us guilty of an offense on a 
charge, if the charge is sustained by evidence ; to 
expel us, if guilty. But let me beg you not to 
rush upon the resolution now before you. Pos- 
terity will review your actions. History stands 
ready to record this matter. What we do will be 
spread out before the eyes of the world. Pass the 
resolution, and the South sees a ruin to her inter- 
ests ; pass it not, and the North finds perils at 
home ; so the South and the North seem to think. 
I can not but believe that action taken on that reso- 
lution to-day will be premature. Petitions and 
memorials have been received by this body and 
referred to a strong committee ; that committee has 
not yet reported ; it will report, we are sure. May 
not some light come in that report? We need 
fuller information from the great body of our mem 



DEEP REGRETS A T PARTING. 1 1 3 

bers and ministers. I am a resident of Ohio, but 
I dare not say how the great body of preachers 
and people in Ohio stand upon this issue. 

"The adoption of that resolution deposes 
Bishop Andrew without form of trial — such is my 
deliberate opinion. It is not safe for you to do so. 
Is the Methodist Episcopal Church in such a state 
of excitement — of revolution — that it can not await 
action on this subject till another General Confer- 
ence ? Take another suggestion : The providence 
of God directs the whirlwind and the storm ; clouds 
and darkness may be round about, but justice and 
mercy are near his throne. Bishop Andrew and 
myself may have passed away when this body meets 
again, and peace may again pervade the Church. 

"Brethren, pause. Let the facts in the case go 
out everywhere to the societies and the confer- 
ences, and let there be a further expression of 
opinion. It will not be Bishop Andrew alone that 
your word will affect. There is a principle in- 
volved ; it does not affect him alone if this resolu- 
tion pass. I pray God you may be directed wisely 
in the decision you are about to make. But I 
pray you to hold on to principles. , ' 

"In like manner, so said they all." But 
there was no escape ; act as they might, a 
rent would be made somewhere — an event 
all seemed to deplore. 

10 



H 4 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



GENERAL REGRETS AFTER PARTING. 

As one after another of the conferences 
in the South held their sessions in the Fall 
of 1844, and proceeded to elect delegates to 
a convention to be held at Louisville the 
next year, there arose feelings of general 
regret at the proposed separation of the 
original Methodist Episcopal Church into 
two distinct branches. 

Some expressions of this wide-felt regret 
we here give the reader : 

1. Kentucky Conference. — "That we deeply 
regret the prospect of a division growing out of 
these (General Conference) proceedings, and that 
we do most sincerely hope and pray that some 
effectual means, not inconsistent with the interests 
and honor of all concerned, may be suggested and 
devised by which so great a calamity may be 
averted.' ' 

2. Missouri Conference. — Same as above. 

3. Holston Conference. — "In common with 
our brethren all over our widely extended Zion, our 
hearts are exceedmgly pained at the prospect of a 
division, growing out of the action of the late Gen- 
eral Conference in the case of Bishop Andrew." 

4. Tennessee Conference —"That under the 
great affliction caused by these (General Confer- 
ence) proceedings we did most ardently hope and 



GENERAL REGRETS AFTER PARTING. I 15 



pray that these calamitous consequences might have 
been averted. But. . . . we honestly confess 
we see at the present no prospect to avoid a 
separation. " 

5. Memphis Conference. — "That we deeply 
reg7'et the prospect of a division growing out of 
these (General Conference; proceedings, and do 
most sincerely and devoutly pray to the great 
Head of the Church that some effectual means, not 
inconsistent with the cause of Christ or the honor of 
all concerned, may be suggested and devised, by 
which so great a calamity may be averted, and our 
long cherished union be preserved and perpetuated." 

6. Arkansas Conference. — "That though we 
feel aggrieved, and have been wounded, without 
cause, in the house of our friends, we have no dis- 
position to impute wrong motives to the majority 
in the late General Conference, and no inclination 
to indorse those vindictive proceedings had in 
some portions of the South, believing it to be the 
duty of Christians, under all circumstances, to 
exercise that charity which beareth all things. 

7. Virginia Conference. — 4 ' We are of opinion 
that it is the mind of the laity of the Church, . . . 
that while they seriously deprecate division, con- 
sidered relatively, and most earnestly wish that 
some ground of permanent union could have been 
found, they see no alternative, and therefore ap- 
prove of a peaceable separation in the present cir- 
cumstances of our condition; and in this opinion 
and this determination your committee unanimously 
agree M 



Il6 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



8. North Carolina Conference. — 4 'Your com- 
mittee deeply regret the division of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church ; . . . a great gulf — we fear an 
impassable gulf — between the North and the 
South/' 

9. Indian Mission Conference. — "That this 
Conference do deeply deplore the necessity for a 
division of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and 
that we will not cease to send up our prayers to 
Almighty God for his gracious interposition, that 
he may guide the affairs of the Church to a happy 
issue." 

10. Texas Conference. — "That we deeply de- 
plore the increasingly fearful controversy between 
the Northern and Southern divisions of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church on the subject of domestic 
slavery. " 

11. Alabama Conference. — "That this Con- 
ference deeply deplores the action of the late Gen- 
eral Conference," etc. 

Bishop Hedding, under date July 4, 1845, 
wrote : 

"I have been grieved a thousand times on ac- 
count of the division of the Church ; but, now that 
it is divided, I wish to do all in my power to pro- 
mote peace and good feeling between the two 
bodies." — Letter to Bishop Andrew. 

''Neither party desired to divide." — Dr. E. H. 
Myers, Disruption, p. 183. 

4 'The idea that an organic union of Churches is 
necessary to peace between them, that men of the 



GENERAL REGRETS AFTER PARTING. 1 1 7 



same faith and working in the same ways are com- 
pelled to erect altar against altar because their 
General Assemblies are different, had not entered 
the heads of Methodist preachers. . . . There 
was no expectation on the part of the South of 
crossing the line made by the General Conference 
(1844), nor did the General Conference think the 
North would feel bound to go across it either. The 
Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
had never crossed the line separating its territory 
from that of the Kentucky Conference of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church; then why should she cross 
that line when the suffix South was added to the 
Kentucky Conference? This was a natural and 
reasonable expectation, based upon the acts of the 
General Conference (1844) and upon the universal 
usages of the Churches. Alas I that it was not re- 
alized. Perhaps, however, it was too much to ex- 
pect." — G. G. Smith in iK Life of Bishop Andrew" 
p. 380-81. 

Of Bishop Andrew's views, a glimpse is 
found in his "Life" by Smith, p. 383-84: 

"In April (1846) he began his journey for the 
General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, which was to meet at Petersburg, 
Va., May 1st. Judge Longstreet had joined him 
in Charleston, as one of the delegates from the 
Georgia Conference. In company with Thomas 
Stringfield (of the Holston Conference), he was 
with the bishop at John Mood's. As there was 
not a doubt that the "Plan of Separation " would 



Il8 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

go at once into effect, the brethren were discussing, 
says Dr. Mood, who as a boy was present, what 
should be done with the share of the Church funds 
which would come to the Southern Church. Bishop 
Andrew expressed his opinion that the "Book 
Concern" of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
should be employed to do all the work for the 
South. 

" 'Why, James," indignantly said Mrs. Mood, 
1 would you have anything to do with them after 
they treated you so ? ' 

"The judge w T as of the same opinion as the good 
Catherine, and expressed himself right warmly. The 
bishop smiled, and said: 

" 1 Before Brother Longstreet went to New York 
he thought all the Northern Methodists were good, 
and now he does not think there are any good.' 

"But he held to his opinion. The alliance be- 
tween the two Churches, he thought, should be as 
close as possible. " 

During May, 1848, the General Confer- 
ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church met 
in Pittsburg, and repudiated the " Plan of 
Separation' 9 (see Appendix, Number Six, 
this volume), whereupon Bishop Andrew 
writes to Bishop Soule : " I know, of course, 
the recent enactments at Pittsburg must pro- 
duce no little confusion along the border, 
and so I suppose we are to have a border 
war now in earnest — altar against altar 
and neighbor against neighbor, 1 fear. ,, Omi- 



GENERAL REGRETS AFTER PARTING. 119 

nous words ! This border war was the great 
grief of his long life. " A border picture" — 
Anthony Bewley's death — is given elsewhere 
in these pages as a sample. The "Martyr- 
doms in Missouri" fill two volumes; other 
States not reported. 

" For thirty-eight years he had been a preacher, 
and for twenty a bishop. . . . There was a 
very trying feature in the work at this time ; it was 
the border war, which he saw coming, and which 
had now come. He was a man of peace, and war 
between any people was pain to him ; but that 
Methodism should be rent in twain, and that there 
should be strife between Ephraim and Judah was 
an especial grief ; and yet what else could there be? 
The ' Plan of Separation ' was disregarded. . . . 
So there were rival Methodisms in the same fields. " — 
Smith's "Life of Andrew" pp. 398-9. 

(From Methodist Advocate, 1885.) 

Mr. Editor : — For one, I am tired of seeing 
altar versus altar in Episcopal Methodism. But 
what can I do to heal the breach in the Methodist 
household? Hoping to effect some good, I intro- 
duced a resolution at our conference held in Knox- 
ville, proposing to send a fraternal messenger from 
our Holston Conference (South) to your Holston 
Conference. This was referred to a committee. 
From that committee came two reports, a majority 
report against the measure, and a minority report 



120 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



in favor thereof. The majority report was adopted 
by the conference. But 

" Numbers are no mark 

That men will right be found ! 
Few were saved in Noah's ark, 
But many millions drowned." 

This schism among Methodists is a sin against 
God, and hurtful to the cause of Christ, at home 
and abroad. 

4 'Behold, how good and how pleasant to dwell 
together in unity." So I felt upon preaching in 
the Methodist Episcopal pulpit in Knoxville, and 
in the Methodist Episcopal pulpit in Chattanooga — 
the " Stone Church/' as the citizens prefer to call 
it. Editors do not like to be called fallible. But 
methinks the blessed Savior would be pleased to 
see milder words, in certain Methodist papers, than 
some epithets that have appeared. This alienation 
among Methodists is a grief to me — the greatest 
grief of my life. J. H. Brunner. 

A few weeks later appeared a second 
article : 

UNION. 

Methodist Advocate : — The hidden leaven 
worketh ; see that you do nothing to arrest its 
progress till the two Methodist Episcopal Churches 
be leavened. 

Since you published my article in favor of har- 
monizing the two Episcopal Methodisms, I addressed 
a communication to the Holston Methodist on the 
subject of organic union. The article was declined 
for the reason assigned, that the appearance of such 



HO IV IT LOOKS TO AN ENGLISHMAN. ,121 



an article at this juncture of affairs 1 ' would produce 
an explosion.'' 

The two Churches should again become one. 
They are the complements of each other ; both 
would be benefited by the union. The Los Angeles 
Advocate, though opposed to organic union, main- 
tains "that the sentiment in favor of organic union 
with the Methodist Episcopal Church, at least 
among the preachers, is stronger than ever before, 
since the division of the Church." 

J. H. Brunner. 

Thus general, deep, and abiding regret 
was felt all over the Church about the sepa- 
ration. How much more intense would that 
grief have been had all the evils of that 
division along the border been foreseen ! 
Under existing conditions the separation would 
have been a moral impossibility. Were our 
original Church restored, no one w r ould desire 
its disruption. No ; but everywhere would 
the sentiment be, " I'm glad I'm in this army." 

How Mcintosh and Sullins's good old 
song would echo "away down South in Dixie 
"Tis the old ship of Zion !" 



HOW IT LOOKS TO AN ENGLISHMAN. 

Mr. Editor : — I can not tell you how I 
felt on my way home from the district con- 
ference at Rural Retreat, when I saw in the 

ii 



122 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Holston Methodist, which you placed in my 
hands at that place, that a change of name 
for our Church was entertained and so freely 
discussed ; it really filled my heart with joy, 
and I have been very much interested in it 
ever since. I was pleased to notice the char- 
ity with which the discussion has been carried 
on, which is a good sign ; for it is the spirit 
of Christ. I am not particularly fond of ap- 
pearing in print, nor am I exactly like a good 
old temperance lady at Cincinnati, who used 
to express herself by saying that she hated 
for any reform to take place without having 
her oar in the boat ; yet it is said that no one 
can speak so truly as he who speaks from 
experience, and that no one knows better 
what is inside than he who has been " through 
the mill." I feel that I have a little experi- 
ence on this great subject, and can not con- 
scientiously withhold it. Having been a 
Methodist for several years in England, and 
coming to this country about ten years ago, 
although wishing to be connected with the 
Methodist Church of the good people among 
whom in the providence of God my lot had 
been cast, it was some time before I could 
join it. Then again, after years had passed, . 
and I seemed constrained by a call from 
within and without to try, with the Divine 



HOW IT LOOKS TO AN ENGLISHMAN. 1 23 

blessing, to make myself more useful in the 
Church, it was some time before I could get 
the consent of my mind to take work in a 
Methodist Church which was, as its name 
would imply, sectional ; for I had been edu- 
cated to regard our glorious Methodism as a 
religion which acknowledged no East, no 
West, no North, no South, but one in which 
there was a great Christian heart beating 
and throbbing and pulsating with the love 
of Christ for a lost and ruined world ; one 
which embraced all humanity, and said with 
John Wesley, "The world is my parish." 
.Now, if there is no feeling or meaning in the 
word "South," it is a dead letter and worse; 
and if there is any meaning in it, it must be 
associated with the past ; and with all due 
regard for the feelings: of others, I think, for 
the sake of the Church, it had better be for- 
gotten ; and if there is any thing that lingers 
in our hearts which is not akin to the spirit 
of Christ, after what we have heard and seen 
during the last few months, let us show our 
magnanimity by our forgiveness ; let it die 
with the dead hero of the North, and let it 
be forever buried in his grave. 

Knowing whereof I speak, when I say 
that the word is a stumbling-block to for- 
eigners and is regarded with prejudice, and 



124 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

especially by our brethren in the North, let 
us remove it. We can ; it will do us good ; 
it will have a good effect on the world ; and 
God will grant us his blessings. I would add 
briefly, if not trespassing on your space, that 
I agree with the brother who said that "The 
Methodist Church" would be our best name 
in the future ; because we all know that it 
is Episcopal, and if those outside do not, it 
will not matter. Perhaps " The Methodist 
Episcopal Church " would be most agreeable 
to all; for in such matters we must not con- 
sult ourselves alone, but the whole Church. 
Let us, therefore, all unite to work and pray 
for the general good. 

Some brother has intimated that a change 
of name would seriously affect us; but a 
Church whose ministry are consecrated and 
true, whose lay-workers are devoted and 
faithful, and whose members are pure, can 
survive any change of name, and be an ac- 
ceptable Church at the second coming of 
Christ. 

"For her our tears shall fall, 
For her our prayers ascend ; 
To her our cares and toils be given, 
Till toils and cares shall end." 

Henry J. Crowgey. 
Wytheville, Va., Oct., 12, '85. 



A VETERAN'S VIEW, 



125 



A VETERANS VIEW. 

Rev. George Stewart, one of the lead- 
ing members of the Holston Conference, 
South, says : 

"The Lord direct you all in the important is- 
sues of the conference. The proposed change of 
name, I think, will not be approved by Holston 
Conference. I hope it will not be. The name of 
Episcopal Methodist, which you now seem to favor, 
is so similar 'Methodist Episcopal,' that really it 
seems to be a distinction without a difference. 
Give us the short and easily understood name of 
'Methodist Churchy and no conflict will appear, 
and no explanation will be needed. Or, as the 
qualifying term 1 South,' which once was necessary 
for us, is now, as most admit, neither necessary nor 
appropriate to us, let us simply fall back on the 
name which we think we are equally entitled to, 
by dropping off the term South. O, but that 
would be a long step towards union with the 
'Methodist Episcopal Church!' Well, it seems to 
me that the 'Cloud' is now moving in that direc- 
tion. It is coming, as sure as we live — then all 
controversy about names will end." — Holston 
Methodist. 

That " Cloud!" How it led God's peo- 
ple of old in their weary way ! We are safe 
while under its guidance. 



126 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



PERSONAL. 

The writer joined the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in the year 1840. Two years later 
he was licensed as an exhorter, in the same. 
Ere the Church split in twain he was handed 
a document as follows : 

"You are hereby authorized to preach as a 
Local Preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
so long as your course is according to the Gospel 
of Christ and the Discipline of the Church. 

" By order of the Quarterly Conference held at 
Rheatown, May, 1844. 

"Creed Fulton, P. E." 

(He has this license still!) 

Those were stirring times. The entire 

<_> 

Methodism of the country was agitated, as 
the sea by a storm. The General Conference 
of 1844 came on with far-reaching influences. 
The plan of separation was adopted with 
strange unanimity. That was followed by 
the Louisville Convention in 1845. Well 
does the writer remember the anxious sus- 
pense that pervaded all classes to hear the 
results of that convention ! How eagerly 
the brethren inquired the news ! With what 
anxiety they gathered around the presiding 
elder, Creed Fulton, as he stopped, on his 



PERSONAL. 



127 



way home from the Louisville Convention, 
to hold our quarterly-meeting ! There was 
no telegraph or railroad in East Tennessee 
at the time. Every body was eager to know 
what the Louisville Convention had done ; 
all felt that a crisis had come, in which the 
peace of the land was concerned. 

He told us that the convention, after 
careful deliberation, had resolved to organ- 
ize the Southern conferences into an inde- 
pendent body, a separate Southern Church. 

" Under what name?" said a brother, 
venerable in age and in the service of God. 

" Methodist Episcopal Church, South," 
said the elder — " the old name with the 
word South added, to distinguish us from the 
other branch." 

Deep down in my heart arose the senti- 
ment, 6i Would God I could have died to pre- 
vent this breach in the Church that has done 
so much for me and the world!" 

The next year the organization of the 
Southern Church was completed at Peters- 
burg, Va. In 1847, I joined the Holston 
Annual Conference. 

There have followed fourteen years of 
pastoral work, in which there were alternat- 
ing seasons of anxiety and triumph. Two 
revival occasions often come up in memory : 



128 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



in one there were one hundred and fourteen 
conversions ■'; in the other, one hundred and 
sixty. In addition to the fourteen years of 
pastoral work, there have been in my history 
twenty-four years of teaching done. If the 
accounts be correct, there have gone out 
from Hiwassee College seventy-eight preach- 
ers to bless the several Churches and the 
world. 

My love for my Church has grown upon 
me all these years. 

My father and mother claimed to have 
been awakened and saved through the in- 
strumentality of the Methodists. I can ne'er 
repay the debt of love I owe. But I have 
grieved over the border warfare between the 
two sister Churches. The evils of this state 
of things I deplore. These evils I shall try 
to remedy. Happy, if I can do any thing in 
this line. My efforts will not go unrewarded 
of the Master. My sun of life is going down. 
After a little I hope to join a happy throng 
redeemed from every nation, and kindred, 
and tongue, and people — from the East and 
the West, and from the North and the 
South — all alike the children of God. 



THE PRESS. 



129 



THE PRESS. 

The following has been going the rounds 
among the newspapers, and is supposed to 
reflect public opinion : 

The Southern Methodists are voting in 
their various conferences on a proposed 
change of name of their organization, from 
" Methodist Episcopal Church, South," to 
" Methodist Episcopal Church in America." 
The latter would be a very awkward title. 
The Methodists should consolidate their two 
great branches and be known as one Church, 
with one faith and one discipline. That the 
separation should continue after the cause 
which led to it — slavery — has disappeared 
must seem an absurdity to all thinking men. 

From the religious press is copied the 
following: " Dr. Luther Lee argues that an 
organic union should take place among all 
the Methodists in this country, and urges 
the following reasons : 

" 1. Uniformity in all essential doctrines. 
2. A common name. 3. Most usages held 
in common. 4. A sameness in the spirit and 
tone of piety." 



1 



130 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

DIFFICULTIES OF REUNION. 

It is admitted that there are difficulties in 
the way of reunion after two bodies have 
been working separately for years. But 
these are not insurmountable. One party 
may have said or done some hard things. 
So of the other. Nearly all who participated 
in the struggles of 1844 are dead. They are 
now where 4 4 they know as even they are 
known." There is no malice there; they are 
now one again. Let us not harbor ill-feel- 
ings. " In malice be ye children." How 
soon children forget and forgive — especially 
under the eye and smile of a true, loving 
father— Ci no respecter of persons." Is it 
not better for Methodists to arrange the 
little differences of the distant past than to 
keep up alienation and altar against altar 
forever ? 

A few designing men, working upon mis- 
taken men, may foment troubles that are 
ready to die. The more angry men are, the 
stronger their antipathies ; the more love of 
God and of the brotherhood in Zion, the 
greater are their sympathies. At the Ecu- 
menical Conference, at the Centennial, at the 
Round Lake camp-meetings, what a flowing 



D1FFICUL TIES OF RE UNION. 1 3 1 



together of feeling ! Under such joy and 
fellowship reunion were easy. 

As we have seen, there are many per- 
sons who are affected and likely to be affected 
in this business. A million members in the 
Southern Church, with their families and 
friends ; then twice that number in the 
Northern branch ; then add the other Meth- 
odist bodies in the United States and through- 
out the world, many millions more ; then 
come the other Christian communions who 
are affected more or less by our doings, a 
vast multitude indeed; then add outsiders, 
whom no man can number; and finally to 
these add the generations to come, in the 
cycles of coming ages. Then above us is 
the heaven of glorious and glorified ones 
who rejoice, not only when a sinner repent- 
eth, but in the expanding glories and triumphs 
of the kingdom of peace ! O, was there ever 
a Church question before so momentous as 
this? Shall the evils of the present schism 
go on forever ? 

''Blessed are the peace-makers/' said Jesus, 
" for they shall be called the children of God." 

Said Charles H. Fowler, in his Fraternal 
Address, at Louisville, in 1874: 

"Leaving organic union as a question of the 
future, let us make the union of our hearts the 



I32 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



question of to-day ; and make one holy covenant 
that from this hour, one in sympathy and one in 
purpose, we will toil on, shoulder to shoulder, 
waiting patiently for that near to-morrow, when 
there shall be but one Methodism for mankind." 

[How like an angel in the delivery of that 
address ! Alas ! the truth of history requires 
the statement that he went back upon the 
bright record he made that day !] 



FREE CIRCULATION NEEDED. 

The blood must have free circulation in the 
human body. Suppose that, at some imagined 
insult, the blood on the right side would 
refuse to circulate on the left, what then? 
Detriment, disaster, death would follow. 

Here we have a nation. By some un- 
fortunate antipathy there is an unhealthy 
restriction upon the free circulation of preach- 
ers. To some extent the same is true ' of 
teachers ; and in slave-times it extended to 
newspapers even ! Over a " Mason and 
Dixon's line " — a line invisible to the trav- 
eler's eye, no crossing of religious teachers 
must be allowed without challenge ! The 
war is hardly over so long as such a line is 
insisted on by partisan feeling. Every 



FREE CIRCULATION NEEDED. 



133 



teacher and preacher and newspaper should 
be free to circulate, free to meet demands in 
our common country. Northern Methodist 
pulpits should be accessible to Southern 
preachers ; and Northern brethren should 
have free access to the South. In days of 
yore, Jesse Lee labored in New England, 
and Stephen Olin in South Carolina ; and 
what would New England Methodism have 
been without Lee ? and what Southern Meth- 
odism, without Joshua Soule ? Church and 
State require that we put away all barriers 
to a free interchange of men and ministries. 
Hence all who are truly awake to the best 
prosperity of the cause of Christ, and our 
republican institutions, must favor a broad 
fraternity, if not the organic union of bodies 
so nearly alike as the two leading Methodist 
Churches. Patriots feel that .in the aliena- 
tion of so many millions of Methodists, there 
is a weakening of ties that ought to bind us 
into one compact nationality. The late war 
was much more bitter than it would have 
been, had the Methodists of the Union been 
an undivided people. 

"Geography" is good in its place, but 
too much of it is not good for the Church 
or the Nation. The man who expects to see 
a rascal in every man that comes across a 



134 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



sectional line, can easily find a rascal's image 
in his own shaving-glass ! Round Lake 
Camp-meetings, and Centennial Love-feasts 
have brought representative men of the dif- 
ferent Methodisms into a better acquaintance 
with each other, to their mutual joy and love. 
The want of the times is a greater inter- 
change between the two sections of the 
Church and the republic. Man should not 
part what God hath joined together. Each 
section needs the other. Florida blesses all 
the Union with her oranges ; all the States 
bless Florida. 



GENERAL GRANT'S VIEW. 

General Grant, in speaking of the condi- 
tion of affairs in the country, both North and 
South, gave expression to the following views : 

"There was no time during the rebellion when 
I did not think, and often said, that the South was 
more to be benefited by defeat than the North. 
The latter had the people, the institutions, and the 
territory to make a great and prosperous nation. 
The former was burdened with an institution re- 
pugnant to all civilized peoples not brought up 
under it, and one which degraded labor, kept it 
in ignorance, and enervated the governing class. 
With the outside world at war with this institution, 
they could not have extended their territory. The 



GENERAL GRANTS VIEW. 



135 



labor of the country was not skilled, nor allowed 
to become so. The whites could not toil without 
becoming degraded, and those who did were de- 
nominated 'poor white trash.' The system of 
labor would soon have exhausted the soil and left 
the people poor. The non-slave-holders would 
have left the country, and the small slave-holder 
must have sold out to his more fortunate neighbors. 
Soon the slaves would have outnumbered the 
masters, and not being in sympathy with them, 
would have risen in their might and exterminated 
them. The war was expensive to the South as 
well as to the North, both in blood and treasure: 
but it was worth all it cost. " 

At the Grant Memorial Service, in Chat- 
tanooga, Hon. D. M. Key, spoke as follows ; 

"I have been notified by your committee of 
arrangements that I have been selected to deliver a 
short address on this occasion as the representative 
of the Confederates. I greatly appreciate the honor 
that is done me by this selection, and I am most 
grateful for the compliment. I am fully aware of 
the delicacy and embarassment of the position as- 
signed me and the great danger of saying something 
inappropriate to the purposes for which we have 
been called together on the one hand, or on the 
other hand of giving utterance to some idea or 
sentiment contrary to the opinions and feelings of 
the b9dy of our people, whose representative I am 
deputed to be. I am anxious not to wound or 
offend. On to day and through these ceremonies 



136 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



the stirring events of our late struggle stares us in 
the face, and it is impossible to escape from their 
sight and presence ; but I trust the time has come 
when we can offer, if we have not already offered, 
our prejudices and animosities as an unclean sacri- 
fice, if I may so speak, upon the altars of patriot- 
ism and religion By all laws of war 

the horses of General Lee's mounted men, at the 
surrender at Appomattox, might have been the 
property of the government, but General Grant 
said : " Let the men keep their horses. They will 
need them in their crops." When the President 
was preparing to arrest General Lee, General Grant 
interposed in General Lee's favor, and prevented his 
arrest. He was full of quiet and undemonstrative 
generosity toward his foes. He believed in the 
justice of the cause he had espoused with all the 
earnestness of his nature, and for myself, though I 
zealously and honestly opposed him and his cause 
until the end of the struggle, I am free to say here 
and now, as I have said heretofore that it was best 
for us, for the South, that General Grant and his 
cause triumphed, and there are many, very many 
thousands of as gallant men as periled their lives 
in the Southern cause who are of the same 
opinion." 

Now, who would have slavery again fast- 
ened as a cancer upon our body politic, or 
upon the Church? Not one! From such an 
evil all would pray the good Lord to deliver us. 

Revolutions like this come by providen- 



SOME FACTS AND FIGURES, 



137 



tial plan, as does the Summer after Winter. 
But methinks the revolution is incomplete 
without the unification of those who were 
estranged by slavery and the war. The 
sturdy warriors in gray and blue were brave 
in war, and are now generous in peace. 
Shall Christians be less generous? 



SOME FACTS AND FIGURES. 

Hon. Howell E. Jackson, a United States 
Senator from Tennessee, says : 

"Fifteen States of the Union — Alabama, Ar- 
kansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, 
Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Vir- 
ginia — . . . have an ^enrolled scholastic popula- 
tion of about 3,000,000! . . . Contrast our edu- 
cational situation with that of Massachusetts. . . . 
Her enrolled pupils are within less than 1,000 of 
her entire scholastic population ! . . . Other East- 
ern and Middle States are able to expend, and are 
expending, from four to ten times as much per 
scholar as we of the South. Such inequalities in 
educational advantages, which I mention merely to 
illustrate the necessities of our situation and need 
of aid, are attended not only with corresponding 
differences in tastes, sentiments, and opinions of the 
people of these different localities, but lead to wide 

differences in social and material progress and 

12 



138 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

in power and influence; for the fact can not be 
ignored that education is the underlying agency of 
all progress ; that it carries with it the knowledge 
that confers power, and that the more widely it is 
diffused in any State or community the more power 
and influence that State or community will exert 
and exercise in forming and molding the public 
opinion that moves and guides the onward course 
of the social current. . . . Washington, with that 
far-sighted wisdom for which he was so distin- 
guished, in his Farewell Address to his countrymen, 
condensed into a single sentence this idea when he 
said, 1 That in proportion as the structure of gov- 
ernment gave force to public opinion it is essential 
that public opinion should be enlightened. ' . . . 
We have in Tennessee 330,000 male citizens of the 
United States twenty-one years of age ; included in 
that number are 115,000 illiterates, unable to read 
the ballots they cast. ... In the thirteen distinct- 
ively Southern States we had, by the census of 
1880, 3,343,514 males twenty-one years of age. Of 
these 1,250,000, or over one-third, could not read 
the ballots they cast in elections affecting both State 
and National affairs. . . . The illiterate vote in each 
of the Southern States, and in several others, holds 
the balaitce of power in all elections. . . . With an 
illiterate voting population holding the balance of 
power, we will step by step, and as certainly as 
night follows day, reach a corrupted suffrage, the 
'very angel of death to elective governments. ' The 
evils and dangers reach beyond the locality in which 
that suffrage may be exercised. . . . But let us 



\ 



SOME FACTS AND FIGURES. 1 39 

turn to another branch of this many-sided sub- 
ject. . . Illiteracy leads to the degradation of labor ; 
to the diminution of its productive power, and to 
the retardment of the material development and 
prosperity of the States in which it prevails, and in 
direct proportion to the extent of its existence. 
. . . Carefully conducted investigations, instituted 
in 1870 and carried on by the Bureau of Educa- 
tion at Washington, established these strikingly in- 
teresting and important facts : 

"1. That an average free common school edu- 
cation, such as now provided in the common 
schools of the country, adds fifty per cent to the 
productive power of the laborer, considered as a 
mere productive machine. 

* ' 2. That the average academical education adds 
one hundred per cent. 

"3. That the average collegiate or university 
education adds from two hundred to three hundred 
per cent to his average annual producing capacity, 
to say nothing of the immense addition to his ele- 
vation. . . . Take the adult male illiterates in the 
thirteen distinctively Southern States, numbering 
now over 1,250,000, place their labor at a minimum 
annual value of $120. add thereto the fifty per 
cent which a common school education would 
give to their productive capacity, and we have the 
sum of $75,000,000 as the annual pecuniary benefit 
to be derived for the individuals and States in 
which they reside, to say nothing of the private, 
the social and political advantages that would also 
follow. . . . Regarded from this lower standpoint, 



140 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



economy towards education is extravagant waste- 
fulness in material benefits. 

" But the subject has a wider bearing than this. 
The South, with its rich and inexhaustible resources 
and mineral wealth, is just entering upon a new 
era of wonderful industrial development. We need 
especially skilled labor to meet the demands of our 
changed conditions and new surroundings. In 
order to supply this necessity of our situation, we 
must either educate the labor in our midst, or leav- 
ing it in ignorance, as a social and political cancer 
to work out its dangerous results, we must seek the 
required labor from other sources. That the former 
is the wisest and safest course admits of no question 
when all the facts are understood. In the Southern 
States there were in 1880, 6,326,000 persons ten 
years of age and over, engaged in all the occupa- 
tions and professions. Of these 3,700,000 (over 
fifty per cent) were unskilled laborers. Who can 
estimate the advantages in the way of material de- 
velopment that would result from having this vast 
and comparatively unproductive force converted into 
skilled labor? 

14 Who can depict or forecast the future growth, 
prosperity, and glory of the South under the im- 
pulse it would give to diversified industries, which 
would arrest or put an end to the ruinous policy 
hereto pursued of making commerce of our raw 
material, representing only the minimum of embod- 
ied labor. The efficiency of labor is the fast and last 
condition of national progress. 

4 4 But the diffusion of intelligence . . . has 



SOME FACTS AND FIGURES. 



141 



important relations to other matters, besides the 
problem of illiteracy with its attendant evils and 
dangerous consequences. . . . The living 
streams which set in upon our shores from Europe 
bear with them foreign feelings and opinions, . . . 
and there is a most urgent necessity that there 
should be created here a national intelligence and 
a national sentiment so broad and deep as to as- 
similate and absorb all others into itself. 
Broad as our territory now is, and great as our 
numbers now are, we are yet in our infancy as a 
nation. . . . No man can now mark out a 
bound on this North American continent and say, 
'Beyond this the eagle shall not stretch its protecting 
wing; ... or 'There the stars of the Union 
will never be the symbol of dominion. ' ... But 
whatever may be our broad boundary, the child is 
now born who will live to hear the hum of 250,- 
000,000 or 300,000,000 on the soil we now 
occupy. . . . By what agencies or through 
what forces shall this mighty mass of humanity . . . 
be controlled, regulated, and guided, so that liberty 
and civilization may go hand in hand through the 
ages to come? We know that nothing but re- 
ligion AND THE WIDE-SPREAD DIFFUSION OF INTELLI- 
GENCE, with their living, vitalizing powers and 
influences, will ever be able to preserve peace and 
order, enforce law, maintain justice, insure domestic 
tranquillity, and secure and perpetuate the blessings 
of liberty under such enlarged and complicated 
conditions. Knowing this, every patriot should feel 
it to be the duty of the hour not to slumber in his 



142 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



tent, but to make the requisite preparation for the 
future welfare and stability of the country." — -Jack- 
son s Address, Jonesboro, 1885. 

Such a statesman's views on the impor- 
tance of educating the masses — America's 
sovereigns ; now for a few reflections. Can 
there be found anywhere else a factor so potent, 
in redeeming the South from the curse of its 
illiteracy, as would be the union of the two 
Methodisms ? The negro has been, and still 
is, suspicious of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, but never of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church ! It needs no adept in 
mental science to see the cause ; the fact is 
plain as the moon at the full, that the original 
Methodist Episcopal Church split on slavery; 
and the negroes have been afraid of re- 
enslavement by Southerners, including the 
Southern Methodists. Since the election of 
Cleveland these fears have weakened. But 
the union of the two Methodisms would 
banish all these fears ! Then Methodists 
could go freely and fully into the educational 
and religious elevation of the illiterates of 
all classes in the South. Is not this the very 
agency needed ? Hereunto the Southern 
Church has done little for the negro since 
the war, and has even retarded, as far as it 
could, the other wing of the Methodist host 



SOME FACTS AND FIGURES, 143 

in its zealous efforts to educate the "Nation's 
wards." Patriotism and religion alike de- 
mand a change in the schedule. This de- 
mand will be met, sooner or later, by the 
fraternity and unification of the two forces 
of Methodism, or possibly by crowding the 
weaker and recusant one to extinction! The 
fathers and mothers may refuse to enter into 
this fraternization and union; but many of 
the younger ones are already ripe for the 
change, as they see the tide is not much 
longer to be repressed. They that be for it 
are more and mightier than they that be 
against the pacific measure. The Southern 
Confederacy fell because the sentiment of the 
world and the logic of facts were against 
it. The same forces are now arrayed against 
the perpetuity of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, as standing out against the 
union proposed by the greater, Northern 
branch — not because there are not good 
people therein, but because, as thus isolated, 
it stands in the way of the world s progress, 
in the long run. Nations failing to harmon- 
ize with Providential purposes are plucked 
up, or modeled over again by revolution. 
Churches are subject to the same law. Unfor- 
tunate is that nation, or Church, or man that 
fights Providence. "Whosoever shall fall on 



144 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



this stone shall be broken ; but on whomso- 
ever it shall fall it will grind him to powder." 
So readeth the handwriting on the wall. 

Greater is he that ruleth his spirit than 
he that taketh a city. History holds no hero 
in higher honor than General Lee, who so 
gracefully submitted to the inevitable. Con- 
trast with him Robert Toombs, who refused 
to be " reconstructed," or the fallen Confed- 
erate chief, who stubbornly stood out against 
fate. Lee's course was dictated by wisdom; 
the course of the other two by obstinacy. 
Herein is a lesson for our Southern Method- 
ist leaders. The inevitable is upon the 
Southern Church. Acquiescence is the only 
true and safe policy. 14 I speak as unto wise 
men." But here comes a letter from a wise 
Southern scribe : " If there is any thing philo- 
sophical in your work, I apprehend you will 
have to go north to find sale for it." 



WANT OF CHARITY. 

• To the trulv good man there comes a 
feeling" of regret, not that Christian ministers 
differ in opinions (for that is a thing to be 
expected in finite beings who are growing in 
the knowledge of the truth every day), but 



WANT OF CHARITY. 



145 



that they allow little differences of opinion to 
separate brethren so widely asunder. It 
shows a want of charity. " One man eateth 
meat : another eateth herbs " — is that a valid 
reason why they may not belong to the same 
Church ? Why they may not be of the same 
household of faith ? There are differences 
of taste among children of the same father 
and mother — a difference in the color of 
their eyes and hair — in their size and weight ; 
but they love one another nevertheless, and 
abide under the same roof-tree. Why should 
Christians fall out about their tweedle dums 
and their tweeedle-dees? Yet good men do 
this ; even John, the beloved disciple, honestly 
reported to his Master that he had rebuked 
some whom he had found casting out devils 
in the ever-blessed name, because they were 
not following the pattern as John understood 
it. How mildly and firmly was spoken the 
Master's rebuke to that beloved disciple ! And 
were he among us, in a visible form, as in 
days of old, would he not again rebuke 
many of us who bear his name, for our want 
of that charity which " suffereth long, and is 
kind," and " endureth forever ?" 

Methodists ready to divide the Church on 
the question of allowing lay-representation, 
of having presiding elders elected instead of 



I46 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

appointed, of permitting a slave-holder to have 
a place in the Church, and of other matters of 
debate ! All this while sinners all around, 
at home and abroad, are perishing in their 
sins, without God, or hope of heaven ! And 
instead of strengthening each other's hands 
for every good word and work, these so- 
called Methodists are trying to pull each 
other's organizations to pieces, saying and 
printing things that might make angels sad, 
"if sorrow in heaven can be." 

There is surely a better way. Here, 
as elsewhere, the ways of wisdom "are 
ways of pleasantness and all her paths are 
peace.' ' 

An incident in college life is here given 
to show the poor economy of schisms : — 

" I want you to arrange for me to have a 
new room-mate ; I won't room with Jim any 
more !" So said an irate boy. 

" What is the matter with you and Jim?" 
said I. 

"He won't go his part in buying a lamp- 
wick," said he. 

"Is that all?" I inquired. 

" Yes ; he is a good fellow every other 
way ; but I won't room with a boy who 
won't go his half in buying a lamp-wick," 
was the reply. 



WANT OF CHARITY. 



147 



I tried to show him his errors in language, 
and manners, and economy. He was told 
that, for the present, there would be no 
change of room-mates. But ever after that 
Jim had a light to himself and so had Dick! 
A dime would have bought wicks enough 
for their partnership lamp during a school- 
term ! But " principle ,; was involved! Some 
people pretend to be very conscientious when 
they are mad ! In this case, each boy, 
"penny wise and pound foolish," paid for 
his own separate light — on principle ! Some 
subsequent time they may see their folly ; 
but not till their angry spell shall have 
passed away. 

Methinks that some divisions in the Church 
rest upon as flimsy a foundation as did the 
feud between Dick and Jim! 

January 15, 18 16, Bishop Asbury in a 
letter to Rev. Joseph Benson, of the Wes- 
leyan Connection, made a wholesome remark 
about the altar-against-altar policy then in 
existence between the Wesleyans in Canada 
and the Methodist Episcopal Churchmen in 
the same field : — 

" We have planted, we have watered, we 
have taken most sacred charge of Upper 
and Lower Canada for about twenty-two 
years. . . . We, as ministers of Christ, 



148 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



think it a sin of sins to divide the body of 
Christ r 

Yet, subsequently, Asbury's folks gave 
way, and the Wesleyans were left in posses- 
sion, in Lower Canada; and, years later, the 
same in Upper Canada. 

Of William Burke, a prominent Methodist 
minister, in the early days of our Church, 
the record runs : 

" Becoming involved in troubles, however, 
he was suspended by the conference, in 
1 8 1 8 . He thereupon organized an independent 
Church, in Cincinnati, which flourished a 
few years, and then failed. After a long- 
continued investigation, the General Confer- 
ence, in 1836, restored his name to the 
minutes/' — (see Simpson s Cyclopedia,^. 147.) 

u Flourished — and then failed such the 
economy of schisms ever more ! Blasting, 
and mildew, and reproach attend them. 
Fearful will be the sad revelations at the 
Great Day ! 

A factious spirit is blind to reason. In 
the " Life and Times of Bishop Hedding,'' 
p. 374, is an account given of the treatment 
he once received in his travels. He and his 
wife drove up to the house of a leading man 
in a certain locality and stated his desire to 
stay and preach. 



WANT OF CHARITY. 



149 



" Well, I want first to know if you are a 
Mason.' ' 

" That is a question I do n't want to med- 
dle with ; there is a great deal of excitement 
about it, and it is no matter whether I am 
or not." 

" We do not want to entertain you, or to 
hear you, unless we know you are not a 
Mason." 

The bishop and his wife drove on, hoping 
others would be reasonable. Next morning 
the sun shone alike on Masons and all. 

It is monotonous, not to say soul-sicken- 
ing, to pick up the " Year Books " and wade 
through a long list of discordant sects of 
Methodists, whose difference is a tweedle-dee> 
a tweedle-di, a tweedle-do, or a tweedle-dum. 

Of such Charles Wesley, says : 

" Your claims, alas! ye can not prove; 
Ye want the genuine mark of love." 

Love for Presbyterians, for Baptists, for 
Lutherans, they profess ; but what love have 
they for Methodists who have a different 
"tweedle" from their own? 

Wesley inquired " Is thy heart right? if 
so, give me thy hand." But these inquire, 
Is thy "tweedle" my " tweedle ?" if not, 
get out of my presence ! Be gone ! 



150 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

Canadian Methodism seems to have 
awakened to a sense of the evils of disunion 
here complained of, and to have set an ex- 
ample worthy of being followed elsewhere. 
Her different and discordant bodies have all 
been molded into one ; and the union has 
been followed by a blessed revival of religion 
and an augmentation of zeal and joy, as well 
as of numbers. O, for something like that 
to bless Methodism in these United States! 
Were not Canada so cold in climate, one 
would almost want " the wings of a dove," 
to dwell where Methodist unity is found ! 
Why not have such a happy union in these 
broad States ? 

Animosities sometimes come from a very 
unexpected source — from the so-called u Holi- 
ness People. " These sometimes imagine 
themselves so much better than their brethren 
that they can not rest. In so saying we do 
not wish to discount a Bible doctrine; "for 
without holiness no man shall see the Lord." 
But we do array a delusive frenzy — a base 
counterfeit that has not the ring of the true 
metal. The true metal bears the test of fire ; 
not so the counterfeit. Take an instance : 

A camp-meeting began on Friday. Among 
the tent-holders was a Mr. S. At the first 
service, Friday night, a call was made for 



WANT OF CHARITY. 



" mourners " to come forward for prayers. 
None came. The preacher then exhorted 
the members to seek " sanctification " then 
and there ; and he called for any that wanted 
the " higher blessing," to come forward for 
prayers. Mr. S. came, and soon professed 
to have found sanctification. A sister tells 
that she had a great desire to see Mr. S. 
"a sanctified man" — could hardly wait till 
next morning, to call around to see him at 
his tent. Morning came, and around she 
went. Mr. S. was in a small annex that 
served as kitchen, not rejoicing evermore, 
but scolding his daughter Sally, a motherless 
child, dreadfully for allowing the chicken to 
become scorched — such abuse, my informant 
says, she had never heard heaped on a child 
before ; and she never wanted to see another 
sanctified man! 

A brother says he can get along all right 
with a man as long as he is seeking sancti- 
fication, but not with one who has suddenly 
come into possession of the fathomless bo- 
nanza ! 

The " Holiness Associations," so-called, 
have made trouble for bishops, presiding 
elders, pastors, leaders, as well as heads of 
families. Says Dr. John E. Edwards, " As 
sure as the angels fell from heaven, so sure 



152 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES, 



will some of these sanctified saints . 
fall from their vows of allegiance to the Meth- 
odist Church, and bring about discord ; and 
dissatisfaction will ultimate in party dissen- 
sions, and finally terminate in sad and dis- 
astrous splits, here and there, in our Church. " 

" Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know 
them. ,, "Do men gather . . . figs of 
thistles ? " — Christ. 

We believe that progressive development 
is a condition of heakhy life ; whenever a tree 
ceases to grow, it begins to die. " Grow in 
grace" is an injunction not out of place with 
the best of believers. Schismatics who have 
no use for this injunction, have little regard 
for others. Infidelity has harmed the Church 
less than has schism. 



BORDER WORK A WAR. 

The two Methodisms have their "border 
work." It is distressing to know that both 
Churches are struggling for the ascendency 
in the same border territory. 

Says the Nashville Christian Advocate : 

"Our border covers a vast area, and runs a 
sinuous line from Pennsylvania to Mexico, from 
Illinois to Oregon. . . . Our border work is 
growing amid difficulties, and under conditions that 



BORDER WORK A WAR. 



153 



impose hardships and sacrifices upon the laborers 
in these border fields. . . . Time and space 
would fail us if we were to give all the names of 
those true soldiers of Jesus Christ who have fought 
a good fight for the Church and for Christ on the 
border. ... So far every border conference, 
except one, has reported an increase of member- 
ship for the past year. There is no break in the 
line at any point, with this single exception. 
The board has not done all it wanted to do for 
the work in the Denver Conference. . . . The 
aggregate of these appropriations is $38,500. We 
wish it could have been more — four times as much.'' 

Such the view from a Southern stand- 
point. A like one is had from a colder lati- 
tude. The question savors of warlike efforts 
to outflank a foe, rather than of that sweet 
Christian spirit that seeks to aid brethren in 
the Lord. 

All along the border-work there has been 
constant warfare for more than forty long 
eventful years ! 

Let there be a truce, and let commission- 
ers be appointed to conclude a treaty of 
peace. Is not such the dictate of reason? 
True religion can be satisfied with nothing less. 

What waste of energy, what failure in 
noble plans, what damage to the progress of 
one party as well as to the other, what " mar- 
ring upon the wheels," of designs divinely 



1^4 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

beautiful and beneficent, must result from 
foolish and sinful antagonisms in feeling and 
purpose and method, between the two Meth- 
odist factions in a small town or weak neigh- 
borhood ! Whereas, if the Methodist people 
were united, "the wilderness would break 
forth into singing and the desert would re- 
joice and blossom as the rose." The Lord 
speed the happy day when Methodist unity 
shall return. 

Time works wonders. The "War of the 
Roses " long desolated England ; but at length 
the white colors of York and the red colors of 
Lancaster were united, and peace, prosperity, 
and power blessed the land ! The men who 
took strong positions in 1844, are nearly all 
gone — singing to-day in heavenly harmony ! 
A new generation is here. Why should 
Methodist families, and children yet unborn, 
be estranged by issues buried long ago ? No : 

" Together let us sweetly live, 
Together let us die, 
And each a starry crown receive, 
And reign above the sky." 

The perpetuation of this Methodistic war- 
fare is without warrant of reason. 

After the adoption of the Finley Resolu- 
lution, 1844 (see Appendix Number One, of 
this volume), Wm. Capers offered a paper 



BORDER WORK A WAR. 



155 



(see Appendix Number Two) which, for 
statesmanship, is equal to any thing found in 
ecclesiastical history. 

This remarkable paper had the misfortune 
of falling upon the time of a rising tempest. 
At such a time ultra measures are at a 
premium. Capers, like young Washington 
on the morning of Braddock's defeat, was 
guilty of the unpardonable offense of being 
a young man, and, as such, of offering advice 
to elder ears — ears dull for hearing wise 
counsel. 

Dr. (afterward Bishop) Paine, in the Nash- 
ville Advocate, August 2, 1844: 

"It was the wish of some of us to separate 
only so far as to have two General Conferences, 
and thus simply dividing the great field of labor, 
and leaving to each section of the work the regula- 
tion of its own affairs ; but such a plan was not 
acceptable to the committee. The six brethren from 
the non slave-holding conferences exerted their influence 
to procure the adoption of the Plan of the General 
Conference. In adopting the Plan, the Conference 
has so sanctioned the organization of a Methodist 
Episcopal Church in the South, that, should it be 
effected, they will be bound to regard us as an in- 
tegral part of the real Methodist family.' 9 

Considering the character of Mr. Paine 
and the fact that he was chairman of this 



156 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



the most responsible committee in the annals 
of Methodism, his testimony is of untold his- 
toric value. Special attention is asked to 
the sentence we have italicized. 

Dr. J. P. Durbin, in Christian Advocate 
and Journal, October 16, 1844: 

* ' The warrant for separation is not in the reso- 
lutions of the General Conference, but, if it exist 
at all, it is in the necessity of the case, of which 
the Church in the South must be the judge." 

Necessity makes law ; makes things 
lawful. 

Of the feeling in the South, 1844, Myers 
says : 

" The people would have risen en masse against 
Methodism in every form if it were believed to be 
under the domination of even anti-slavery, much 
less abolition, sentiment; and they would have be- 
lieved this of it unless the action of this conference 
were repudiated by Southern delegates. The 
Northern members had been made aware of this 
fact, and had acted on the information by passing 
a plan allowing peaceable separation, rather than 
have general dissolution." — Dismption, p. 129. 

In the Western Christian Advocate of Au- 
gust 16, 1844, Dr. Charles Elliott wrote: 

' 4 From present prospects the South will form 
an independent Methodist Episcopal Church. . . . 
We can see no injury that will accrue to religion 



BORDER WORK A WAR. 



157 



from this new organization, or rather modification 
or adjustment of an old one. At an early age 
Christianity was resolved into many distinct con- 
nectional organizations, called Churches— as the 
Churches of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, 
Rome. . . . Even Methodism has given ex- 
amples of similar character. There are the British 
Conference, the Irish Conference, the Canadian 
Conference — all acting independently ; all co operat- 
ing ; all in friendly relations." 

But unfriendly influences were at work to 
disturb the sentiment, 

" Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea." 
And well has Myers exclaimed : 

4< 0, why could they not have been at peace? 
Why did prejudice and passion and the personal 
bickerings and animosities of leaders and editors 
and other writers arouse bitterness and hostility 
between these kindred branches of the great Meth- 
odist family, distinct in jurisdiction, but one in 
purpose?" — Disruption, p. 137. 

Upon the heads of truce-breakers rest 
the evils growing out of a disregard of the 
u Plan of Separation." 

After the action taken by the Louisville Con- 
vention in 1845, Bishop Morris was invited to 
meet some preachers in Missouri, to organize 
a conference antagonistic to the Missouri 
Conference that had been represented in the 



i 5 8 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Louisville Convention. The noble old Roman 
never appeared to better advantage than he 
does in the sterling letter he wrote in reply : 

" Burlington, Iowa, Sept. 8, 1845. 

"Rev. Wilson S. McMurry, — Dear Brother: 
Your letter of the 1st instant is now before me. 
The resolutions to which you refer did pass in the 
meeting of the bishops in New York, in July, 
unanimously. We all believe they are in accord- 
ance with the Plan of Separation adopted by the 
General Conference. Whether that plan was wise 
or foolish, constitutional or unconstitutional, did 
not become us to say, it being our duty, as bishops, 
to know what the General Conference ordered to 
be done in a certain contingency which has actually 
transpired, and to carry it out in good faith. It is, 
perhaps, unfortunate that the resolutions were not 
immediately published, but it was not thought nec- 
essary by a majority at the time they passed. Still 
our administration will be conformed to them. 
Bishop Soule's notice was doubtless founded upon 
them. 

"As I am the responsible man at the Indiana 
Conference October 8th, it will be out of my power 
to attend the Missouri Conference ; nor do I think 
it important to do so. Were I there I could not, 
with my views of propriety and responsibility, 
encourage subdivision. If a majority of the Mis- 
souri Conference resolved to come under the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South, that would destroy 
the identity of the Missouri Conference, as an 



BORDER WORK A WAR. 



159 



integral part of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
As to having two Missouri Conferences, each 
claiming to be the true one, and demanding the 
dividends of the Book Concern, and claiming 
the Church property, that is the very thing that 
the General Conference designed to prevent by 
adopting the amicable Plan of Separation. It is 
true that the minority preachers have a right, 
according to the General Rule in the Plan of Sep- 
aration, to be recognized still in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church ; but, in order to do that, they 
must go to some adjoining conference in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. The border charges 
may also, by a majoirty of votes, decide which 
organization they will adhere to, and if reported 
in regular order to the conference from which they 
wish to be supplied, or to the bishop presiding, 
they will be attended to on either side of the line 
of separation. But if any brethren suppose the 
bishops will send preachers from the North to in- 
terior charges in the South, or to minorities in 
border charges, to produce disruption, or that they 
will encourage minority preachers on either side of 
the line to organize opposition lines, by establish- 
ing one conference in the bounds of another, they 
are misled. That would be departing from the 
plain letter of the rule prescribed by the General 
Conference in the premises. Editors may teach 
such nullification, and answer for it, if they will; 
but the bishops all understand their duty better 
than to indorse such principles. I acknowledge 
that, under the practical operation of the Plan of 



i6o 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Separation, some hard cases may arise ; but the 
bishops do not make them, and have not the power 
to relieve them. It is the fault of the rule, and 
not of the executive administration of it. In the 
meantime there is much more bad feeling indulged 
in respecting the separation, than there is necessity 
for. If the Plan of Separation had been carried out 
in good faith and Christian feeling on both sides, it 
would scarcely have been lelt more than a division 
of an annual conference. 

"It need not destroy confidence or embarrass 
the work, if the business be managed in the spirit 
of Christ. I trust the time is not very far distant 
when brethren, North and South, will cease their 
hostilities, and betake themselves to their prayers 
and other appropriate duties in earnest. Then, 
and not till then, may we expect the Lord to 
bless us as in former days. 

"I am, dear brother, yours, respectfully and 
affectionately. Thomas A. Morris." 

On this plan Bishop Morris acted, and 
his administration was approved by the 
Pittsburg General Conference of 1848 — the 
same that pronounced the plan null and 

void! 

Out of some 500,000 members belonging 
to the Church, South, there were 2,735 who 
petitioned the Northern General Conference 
not to abandon them to a Church tolerating 
slavery ! In behalf of these there was much 



"BORDER PICTURES:' 



161 



unnecessary sympathy ; for did not both 
Churches have slave-holding members to the 
day of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclama- 
tion? Certainly! Yet, mainly under plea 
of relieving these, that body proceeded to 
declare the Plan of Separation "null and 
void!" (See Appendix, No. 6.) 

The evils attaching to that act can never 
be fully known, but in the light of the judg- 
ment day. Of course the flood-gate being 
raised, a torrent, a deluge, swept over the 
border ! There are some ugly pictures claim- 
ing attention here. Not unfrequently men 
are found who, though they are not willing 
to live Methodists, are willing to fight for 
the Church of their families. Southern men, 
soldiers in gray, drove W. H. H. Dugan, 
my neighbor, a " Union man," though serv- 
ing a circuit in the Southern Church — drove 
him at the point of the bayonet miles and 
miles along the dusty road one hot Summer 
day — to report to some man in uniform ! 

Retaliations followed, as we shall see. 



"BORDER PICTURES." 

As instances of the so-called border-work 
take the two pictures — the one good, the 
other bad — given below. They were sent 

14 



1 62 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



by this writer, December 9, 1867, to the 
St. Louis Christian Advocate, where they 
appeared soon after in print : 

1. Mi?ies City Station, in Polk County, 
Te?znessee. — Having been invited by the late 
pastor, Rev. James King Stringfield, to visit 
that place and assist in holding a sacramental 
service, I accepted the invitation. By the 
way, I found that point of much more impor- 
tance than I had imagined, there being about 
three thousand five hundred souls in and 
about the mines. Our Northern Methodist 
brethren were there also, and had an ap- 
pointment for preaching the same Sabbath. 
But, to our pleasure, their pastor, Rev. A. 
C. Hunter, and his congregation came over 
and worshiped with us, he communing with 
the ministers, and his people, many of them 
English Methodists, with our flock. At three 
P. M. there was class-meeting in the " hired 
room" of the Northern brethren, the South- 
ern Methodists meeting with them. To- 
gether we spoke of what God had done for 
our souls. At night they were again with 
us in the Southern church, listening to the 
preached Word. " Behold how good and 
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 
together in unity." 

2. Otcr First Qtiarterly Meeting at Blue 



"BORDER PICTURES:' 



I6 3 



Spring, Sewee Mission, Roane County, Just 
Closed. — The Sabbath preceding, a quarterly- 
meeting was held there by the Northern 
Methodists, presided over by Rev. Jesse Al- 
bert Hyden, who has license to practice law 
as well as to preach — the ringleader of the 
Loyal Leaguers of this section. The church 
is a commodious, white frame building, built 
by and deeded to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, " in fee simple." Of course, 
we Southern Methodists felt at home in our 
own church. The Word preached by us on 
Saturday seemed to do the people good 14 as 
it doeth the upright in heart." After 
dismission, we convened in quarterly con- 
ference, transacting the usual business, 
licensing a local preacher, etc., and then 
dispersed, to meet again for service at 
u candle-lighting." 

I took dinner with the family of the late 
Rev. Dr. J. R. Robertson. About sunset 
Master Warren Robertson came in and told 
us that there would hardly be preaching, as 
the " League" were to meet in our church 
that night. However, we went over accord- 
ing to appointment. We found the Leag- 
uers out in force and in possession of the 
church; nor did they have the gallantry to 
offer an eligible seat to Sister Hood, a promi- 



164 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



nent Methodist, who had come sixteen miles 
to attend the meeting. 

We lighted a candle and put it in posi- 
tion. They lighted others. Dr. Shipley, 
president of the " Loyal League/' spread 
writing materials upon a table in front of the 
pulpit. It was evident they were about to 
proceed to business. Every body seemed 
embarrassed. Speaking sometimes relieves 
us. I spoke : 

" Gentlemen, I came into your neighbor- 
hood to-day — a stranger — to hold a quarterly- 
meeting. After preaching to-day, I gave out 
an appointment for to-night, according to 
usage. About sundown I learned there was 
to be a meeting of another character at this 
hour. I did not know it when I made my 
appointment. As the nights are long, I 
hope that you will find time to transact your 
business, after divine services are over ; our 
exercises shall be brief" — 

Some one spoke out — " We have impor- 
tant business to-night." 

Dr. Shipley — 4 'As president of the coun- 
cil, I can soon put the vote. All in favor of 
holding on to your time, rise up !" 

There was not a case of rheumatism in 
sight, as the Leaguers hastily arose. 

Dr. Shipley — 44 The vote is unanimous. " 



"BORDER pictures:' 165 

As they outnumbered us three to one, 
we left for our. lodgings. 

Next morning a Leaguer called where I 
lodged. He seemed confused and soon left. 
He told some one in the yard as he passed 
out, that he had called to talk to the preach- 
ers, but that his heart had failed him. He 
said further, that members of the League 
would be along the road as we went to 
Church. At the proper hour we started, 
and, sure enough, three men # were waiting 
for us by the road-side. One called me by 
name and said he wished to speak to me — 
said he was the only member of the League 
that knew me — had been requested to de- 
liver a message to me as presiding elder of 
the district, that there must be no more ap- 
pointments for Southern Methodist preachers 
at that place. I asked him whether the 
appointment we were then on the way to fill 
was included in his message. He replied, 
"There was nothing said about that/' 

We went on to the church. It had been 
barred against us. Some young ladies had 
arrived before us, one of whom had opened a 
window, and another, a daughter of General 
Hickey, had gone in and unbarred the door. 

I found the pulpit soiled. — Profanum in 
auribus Anglicis. — I stood in the chancel 



1 66 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



and preached from the words of Jesus : 
" Whosoever doeth the will of my Father 
which is in heaven, the same is my brother and 
sister, and mother'' There was weeping in 
the congregation. We partook of ' ' the em- 
blems of the broken body and shed blood/' 
and then " sang a hymn and went out." 

Such the scenes along M the long and sinu- 
ous border/' Enough of these might be given 
to fill large volumes. " Tell it not in Gath," 
lest our common enemies should triumph ! 

Dr. E. H. Myers, (Disruption, p. 187-8), 
says : 

"The attitude assumed toward the Church, 
South, by the other communion, during and after 
the Confederate war, further complicated the diffi- 
culties. After the Federal forces had forced the 
passage of the Mississippi River, and occupied 
large sections of Southern territory, Bishop Ames 
and some of the preachers of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church followed the victorious army with a 
circular order issued to its officers, under date of 
November 30, 1863, from the Secretary of War, 
Mr. Stanton, in which he said : 

" ' You are hereby directed to place at the dis- 
posal of Bishop Ames all houses of worship be- 
longing to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
in which a loyal minister, who has been appointed 
by a loyal bishop of said Church, does not offici- 
ate.' [Leaving the officers to decide on loyalty in 
preachers and bishops.] 



"BORDER PICTURES:' 



"Armed with this order, officials of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church took possession of several 
houses of worship in the occupied cities of the 
South, in spite of the remonstrances of the mem- 
bers owning them, and their pulpits were filled by- 
preachers whom they considered their political 
enemies. Even after the war had closed, possession 
of several of these houses of worship was main- 
tained until, after many obstructions and vexatious 
delays, they were restored to their rightful owners 
by order of the government." 

Dr. Matlack, as presiding elder of the 
Northern Methodism at New Orleans, writes 
in the Central Advocate, what the Northern 
General Conference ought to heed (see 
Advocate, March 15, 1870): 

''With the humiliation of the South, the flight 
of her ministers, our Church, by national authority, 
occupied and held many pulpits of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South. No other denomination 
did just as we did in the matter. Temporary occu- 
pancy of pulpits occurred, in some instances, with 
others; but our ministers stood in the attitude of 
conquerors. They differed little, in appearance, 
from the relation of invaders. It did not so appear 
to them ; it did so appear to the Church, South. 
It is so esteemed by them now 7 . ... If the 
occupancy of the pulpits of the Church, South, had 
been only for the purpose of offering the preaching 
of the Word to deserted congregations, and, on the 
return of their pastors and the restoration of peace, 



1 68 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



had been yielded up gracefully, it would have been 
better for the peace of the Methodist family. But 
such was not the case. Claims were set up to the 
property on questionable grounds. . . . Did 
we not wrong our brethren in this thing? Is not 
confession of wrong far better than defense of 
wrong? Can we ignore our duty and be guiltless 
before God and the Church of Christ ? Our atti- 
tude, as a Church, towards the South, both ecclesi- 
astically and politically, needs to be carefully ex- 
amined." 

This is strong and true testimony. The 
Southern house of worship at Athens, Tenn., 
was closed against us as pastor for two years 
and six months — till it was restored by order 
of the Supreme Court. During the " lock- 
out" we worshiped in the old, dilapidated 
court-house. But the sympathy of the people 
and the blessing of God were with us. Many 
a soul was converted there. 



ANOTHER PICTURE— VERY UGLY. 

The following account is taken from the 
St. Louis Christian Advocate, of Feb. 19, 
1868, as a sample of the troubles along the 
"border" work, between the two antago- 
nistic Methodisms ; time would fail to tell of 
Brilhart, and Jacob Smith, and Long, and 



ANO THER PICTURE— VER Y UGL Y. 1 69 



Swisher, and Mahoney, and others. See also 
the two volumes of " Martyrdom in Mis- 
souri," by Dr. Leftwich. But to the picture: 

PREACHERS I1ST EAST TENNESSEE. 
MORE OUTRAGES. 

44 The following letters disclose one more of 
those terrible outrages which during a few years 
last past have been committed against Southern 
Methodist ministers. One more has been added 
to the long list of revolting crimes committed in 
the name of 4 4 loyalty " and religion. The editor 
of this paper is well acquainted with the parties by 
whom these letters were written. They are both 
unimpeached and unimpeachable ministers of our 
Church. They are just, generous, gentlemanly 
and dignified Christian men. Few, if any, are 
more so. The one so cruelly maltreated is a re- 
markably quiet, inoffensive and harmless young 
man, and withal of most exemplary piety. But he 
is a traveling preacher in connection with the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South, and that was his 
offense, and his only offense. 

44 Northern Methodist preachers can travel, 
preach and organize 44 Loyal Leagues," as some of 
them have done, and no one molests them. Why 
this difference? Who are they that instigate such 
things, that connive at them, that chuckle over 
them and secretly rejoice in their commission? 
Not the Southern Methodists, nor the friends of 
Southern Methodists, nor the lovers of justice, nor 
the merciful men, nor the order-loving, law-abiding 

15 



I/O THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

men. Then who are they? Ah! 4 4 the truth will 
out," and it is coming out quite plainly in Ten- 
nessee as well as in some other places. The people 
are perceiving who they are that are really respon- 
sible for these things, much as they try to hide 
themselves behind their deluded tools. The re- 
flecting people see who they are that in the name 
of the Lord, and of loyalty, are stirring up all this 
diabolism. But to the letters, as follows: 

" 1 Bristol, Feb. 6, 1868. 

" ■ Mr. Editor : You remember my younger brother, 
Rev. H. C. Neal, whom you met at the Springs last 
Summer. This year his work is Louisville Circuit, in 
the county of Blount. I have just received from him 
the following note, over which my wife and children 
are taking a hearty cry. 

" 1 With the stripes, and blood, and scars fresh upon 
him, I can scarcely see how the dear fellow could write 
this account of the fiendish work of these ruffians and 
assassins without using even a word of complaint. 

" ' For my own part, while I rejoice that the history 
of our religion has developed such a spirit of forgive- 
ness as that evinced in the last prayer of Stephen, I can 
not refrain from looking with interest to the question 
of the Savior, ' How can ye escape the damnation of 
hell?' Yours in the Redeemer, 

" <W. W. Neal/ 

"'Louisville, Tenn., Feb. 5, 1868. 
"'Dear Wiley: I have passed through some 
strange and revolting trials since I saw you, but the 
most severe trial was on Sunday last. My appoint- 
ment in the forenoon was at Morgan ton. During the 
morning, as well as the previous evening, a number of 



ANOTHER PICTURE— VERY UGLY. 171 



persons from the counties of Monroe and Blount, under- 
stood to be in the interest of the Northern Methodist 
Church, were seen assembling at a couple of places 
about the village. Upon going to the church at ioj£ 
o'clock, I found it filled — a large portion negroes — a 
negro and white man seated in the pulpit together. Re- 
maining but a short time I repaired to the house of a 
friend, took dinner, and started to my evening appoint- 
ment at Axley's Chapel. 

<; * When about one and a half miles from Morgan- 
ton, a crowd on foot met me, with pistols presented and 
cocked, a number at the same time springing into the 
road behind me with pistols drawn, thus surrounding 
me. Seizing my horse by the bridle, and pulling me 
off, a severe blow was given me on the head, I suppose 
with a pistol, which, as I afterwards learned, made an 
ugly gash, from which I was soon covered with blood. 
They then blindfolded me, dragged me into a hollow, 
where stripping me they tied me with a rope to a tree 
and nearly beat me to death. Sick, weary, and faint, I 
arrived at Dr. Douthet's about sundown, where I re- 
ceived all the kindness, attention, and sympathy which 
it was possible for friends to bestow. On Monday 
evening I obtained my saddle,* saddle-bags, and shawl, 
through the kindness of a negro. They took nothing 
from me but my gold watch-chain. My watch, a fine 
one, as you know, is broken, and I fear ruined. 

"'lama little better to-day, and hope erelong to 



*The saddle was also pulled from the horse at the time of 
assault: the horse went along the highway a mile and a 
half to my father's, where he and his master had taken din- 
ner on a former round. Here Neal found him, but refused 
to remain, hastening on to Dr. Douthet's for medical aid. 
The doctor pulled strips of Neal's shirt out of the flesh into 
which they had been driven by the lash. J. H. B. 



172 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



be again at the post of duty, though it may also be the 
post of danger. Affectionately, your brother, 

" ' H. C. Neal. ; " 

' ' Now, people of Morganton, of Blount County, 
of Monroe County, of East Tennessee generally ! 
what do you think of such things ? Soberly and 
seriously, what do you think of them? Did Henry 
C. Neai ever do harm to any of you ? Did he 
ever harm any one, in any way? Why then was 
that worse than savage-like attack made upon him? 
Why was his blood — as innocent as the blood of 
any man — so cruelly spilled ? Why was such a 
cowardly attack made on him, when alone, un- 
armed and defenseless, and that, too, on the holy 
Sabbath, when he was quietly going to bear a mes- 
sage of love and mercy to his fellow-men ? And 
why was he so mercilessly beaten ? What do you 
think of such things? They may be in accordance 
with what some of you call "loyalty," but is 
there any patriotism in them? any virtue? any 
honor? any justice or mercy, tenderness or kind- 
ness ? any chivalry, or bravery, or dignity, or 
manliness in a dozen or so of strong men, all armed, 
attacking and abusing a small, weakly, feeble youth, 
when he was alone, unarmed, unprotected, and de- 
fenseless? Is that what you call bravery? 

"Then, again: Do you think that such things 
will promote the true interests of your country ? 
Make it more desirable for strangers to settle in ? 
Will these things improve your character and repu- 
tation as a people, and make you more honorable 
in the estimation of men? Will they improve your 



ANOTHER PICTURE— VERY UGLY. 1 73 

honesty and piety, and make life, and property, 
and reputation more secure among you? Can you 
rest more quietly and sleep more sweetly because 
of these things ? Look at them calmly and think 
of them seriously. Are the blessings of God and 
the favors of heaven bestowed on a people because 
they do or tolerate such things? Are they! 

4 4 Then to those immediately concerned — the 
perpetrators, the instigators, the aiders and abet- 
tors of these wrongs and outrages — let me say a 
word : Many of you will see what I write, others 
of you will hear of it, and some of you will curse 
me bitterly, but those curses will injure you more 
than they can injure me, so I will write plainly. 

"Men! I can not say good men, for you are 
not such ; you are not good, nor are you just, nor 
are you brave, nor are you generous. You know 
you are not. On the contrary, you are bad men — ■ 
very bad men — bad in heart and bad in life. You 
are unjust, and ungenerous, and unmerciful, and 
cowardly. So I say men. Now, what do you think 
of these things ? you who instigate them, en- 
courage them, chuckle over them, and secretly 
rejoice at them ; and you who perform them, if 
you are not 1 4 possessed/' or crazy, or drunk, what 
do you think of them ? Look upon yourselves ; 
look upon your families; look upon your country 
and the example you are giving ; look to the grave, 
where you must soon be ; look to the bar of God, 
before which you must appear, and then say what 
you think of them ! 

"Alas! Poor, misguided, mistaken, deluded, 



174 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES 



and miserable men ! While with unutterable ab- 
horrence and ineffable disgust I think of your hor- 
rible crimes, in my heart of hearts I pity you, and 
pray that you may reform, repent, be forgiven, and 
saved. 

11 Do you expect by seizing our churches; driv- 
ing Sunday-schools of women and children out. of 
their houses, as some of you did near Athens; 
mobbing our preachers, as you mobbed Brilhart, 
and Long, and others, or beating them nearly to 
death, as you have done Neal ; or defiling our 
church houses as you defiled the one in Roane 
County where Brunner was holding his quarterly- 
meeting; or by a systematic and persistent course of 
misrepresentation and slander, such as you have been 
practicing ; by any or all of these means do you 
expect to stop the work of Southern Methodist 
preachers and the progress of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, South? If you do, you are as much 
mistaken as were your friends here in Missouri 
when they decoyed Rev. G. Woods from his home, 
then shot him down by the roadside, cut off and 
carried away his hand as a trophy, and left his 
body to be eaten by dogs and hogs ; or when they 
shot that poor old preacher, T. Glanville, while he 
was quietly sitting in his own house; or when they 
shot poor Headlee ; or when they imprisoned, 
abused, mobbed or killed others. You are very 
■much mistaken. 1 1 The word of God is not bound." 
You do not know what souls of fire and nerves of 
steel true ministers of the Church, South, have. 
Nor do you know how they can endure hardships 



ANOTHER PICTURE— VERY UGLY. 1 75 



as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, nor how " princi- 
palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things 
to come, can never be able to separate them from 
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." You 
can not appreciate the high, noble, manly Christian 
feelings that possess them, nor the pure and holy, 
and godlike principles from which they act. You 
are dealing with them as other bad men dealt with 
their Divine Master, and with his apostles ! Did 
they stop the progress of truth and righteousness 
by their bitter persecutions ? No, nor will, nor can 
you stop it by your cruel persecutions. But oh ! 
what cups of bitterness are you filling for your- 
selves ! and the Providence of God will put those 
cups to your unwilling lips ! You will have to 
drink them to the very dregs ! What restless days 
and sleepless nights are in store for you ! What 
agonies must you suffer from the gnawings of a 
guilty conscience ! What bitter remorse ! The 
blood of poor Neal will stain your souls so deeply 
as never to be washed out by the blood of Christ ! 
His pale, innocent face, his meek and quiet look 
will haunt you like a very demon ! Your tormen- 
tors and torturers will be your own consciences ! 
Go where you will, you can not get away from 
yourselves. By day and by night, at home, or 
wherever else you ma} 7 be, remorse will be as a very 
hell in your souls ! God pity you ! You have 
done what man can never undo, and what will fol- 
low you to the grave, and beyond the grave, and 
what, unless forgiven of God, will torture you 
forever! 



176 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



" In years gone by I was familiar with Morgan- 
ton and its people, and the last, or nearly the last, 
religious meeting I held there, Rev. James Axley 
was present — only a short time before his death — 
Rev. Wm. Patton was present, Rev. B. Abernathy 
was there, Samuel Cope was there, James Cope was 
there, and there were such men as the Blairs, 
the Uptons, the Gillaspies, the Wilsons, the 
Douthets, the Bowmans, the Browders, the Saffels, 
the Coxes, and many others of like character. 
Could a preacher — any preacher — or any other in- 
nocent man have been mobbed in the midst of such 
citizens as they were? No, never! In the first 
place, mobocrats would not and could not live 
among such ; and, in the second place, if any had 
come there from other places, the strength of pub- 
lic opinion, public indignation, public scorn, and 
the public arm would have promptly and effectually 
prevented all such proceedings as those in the case 
of H. C. Neal. O, what " degenerate sons of no- 
ble sires " ye are ! 

" But a word to the suffering brethren there, 
and I am done for the present : 

"Brethren, see that none of you render evil for 
evil. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the 
Lord. Rejoice in tribulations, or sore trials, know- 
ing that tribulation worketh patience, patience 
experience, and experience hope. Count it all joy, 
when ye fall into divers temptations, and like the 
apostles of our blessed Lord, * Rejoice that ye are 
counted worthy to suffer affliction for the name 
of Christ. ' Think it not strange concerning your 



ANOTHER BORDER PICTURE, 



177 



fiery trials, but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers 
of Christ's sufferings. Happy that ye are re- 
proached and evil entreated for the name of Christ, 
for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you, 
and when Christ shall appear, then shall ye also 
appear with him in glory ! You are truly and 
highly honored, and have now an opportunity such 
as you never had before, to cultivate and exhibit 
the most excellent graces of the true Christian 
character, the graces of forbearance and forgiveness! 
See that you do it. Bless them that persecute you, 
and pray for them that despitefully use you. Then 
will you grow better and better, more and more 
like the blessed Master, and happier and happier ! 

" God will deliver you, most certainly and most 
safely, and bless you, whether living or dying. 
Give yourselves more and more to him, and be 
ready and willing to glorify him in whatever way 
his wisdom and goodness may direct. You are 
now sowing wide and deep the seeds of the true 
Church of God. A glorious harvest will follow. 
It will! You may rely on that. And now as I 
publish the names of the writers of the letters, I 
sign this with my own name, that the responsibil- 
ity may rest where it properly belongs. 

"D. R. Mc Anally, Editor Advocate. 

"St. Louis, Mo., Feb., 1868," 



i 7 8 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



ANOTHER "BORDER" PICTURE. 

(From the Cyclopedia of Methodisin, Compiled by Bishop 
Simpson, p. 105.) 

ANTHONY BEWLEY. 

" Anthony Bewley, a member of the Arkansas 
Conference, and a martyr for his opposition to 
slavery, was born in Tennessee, May 22, 1804. In 
1829 he was admitted into the Tennessee (Holston) 
Conference, and in 1843 was transferred to Mis- 
souri. When the Southern conferences, in 1845, 
separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
he refused to adhere to the South, and preached 
for several years independently, supporting himself 
and his family chiefly by the labor of his hands. A 
few other preachers gathered about him, regarding 
him as a presiding elder. When the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, in 1848, reorganized its confer- 
ence in Missouri, Mr. Bewley entered the regular 
work ; and when Arkansas and Northern Texas 
were separated from Missouri, he labored in those 
States. As the antislavery excitement increased 
severe persecution assailed the ministers of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. In some localities 
they were not only ostracized, but they suffered 
from violence. In 1858 Mr. Bewley was appointed 
to Texas, but left his work on account of the dan- 
gers which everywhere assailed him. In i860 he 
returned to that field of labor. His friends tried 
to dissuade him from going; but his reply was, 
'Let them hang or burn me on my return, if they 



THE BOOK BUSINESS. 



179 



choose, hundreds will rise up out of my ashes/ 
Accordingly he and his family, including two sons- 
in-law, returned to Texas. The excitement against 
him became very intense, simply for preaching an 
earnest Gospel, while he belonged to what was 
regarded as a Northern organization. Surrounded 
with dangers he left the country. After his de- 
parture charges, without any foundation, were 
alleged against him, and a reward of one thousand 
dollars was offered for his capture. He was taken 
in Missouri and carried back to Fort Worth, 
where he was hanged on a tree by a mob, Sep- 
tember 13, i860. He was a plain, earnest, fear- 
less, preacher of the Gospel." 

Gentle reader, you have looked at these 
u Border Pictures. 5 ' These are enough for ex- 
amples. But there are two volumes filled with 
the " Martyrdoms in Missouri /" East Ten- 
nessee could furnish materials for another ! 



THE BOOK BUSINESS.* 

We. have seen that in the General Con- 
ference of 1844 William Capers favored the 
plan of patronizing the Book Concern in 
New York instead of having a Southern 
house (see Appendix, No. 2, this volume), 
and that two years later Bishop Andrew was 



See Appendix, No. 11, this volume. 



180 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



roundly berated, in Charleston, for holding 
the same opinion. Happy for Methodism 
had such counsels prevailed ! But it was 
here, as in the troublous times after the 
demise of Solomon, the wisest counsel was 
set aside for a more radical advice. Let us 
see a little into this business, one of the 
strongest bonds of the Southern Church. 

"The separation of the Church South, in 1845, 
gave rise to a suit in the United States Court, and, 
under a decree of the court, a pro rata division 
was ordered. In accordance with this decree the 
agents at New York and Cincinnati paid the rep- 
resentatives of the Church South $270,000 in 
cash, and also transferred to them the presses and 
papers belonging to the concern in the South, and 
all the debts due and payable in the bounds of the 
Southern conferences." — Bishop Simpson's Cyclo- 
pedia, p. 119. 

When the author was a member of the 
Southern General Conference in 1878, there 
was great trouble over the Publishing House 
at Nashville. The $270,000 received from 
the Northern Book Concern had mostly been 
lost from sight, and the Church was con- 
fronted with a debt of fearful, but unknown, 
amount. The eyes of all turned for hope to 
the veteran John B. McFerrin. To him was 
assigned the task of bringing order out of 



THE BOOK BUSINESS. 



181 



chaos. In his report in 1885 occurs this note : 
"The remainder of the debt of 1878, repre- 
sented by Publishing House bonds . 
is $128,000, being a reduction in seven years 
of $222,726. 16. " That is, he had found the 
house in debt some $350,000! 

There is a half-open secret about this 
business. The house was not established at 
the first General Conference in 1846, nor by 
the General Conference at St. Louis, in 1850, 
but at the General Conference at Columbus, 
Georgia, in 1854, ten years after the separa- 
tion. At this conference the proposition to 
establish a Southern Methodist Publishing 
House did not meet with much favor. There 
were difficulties in locating it at St. Louis, 
Louisville, Nashville, Baltimore, Prattville, 
and some other points, but the chief trouble 
lay in the inexorable laws of trade ; the 
North, with her facilities and rates of ex- 
change at that time, could manufacture and 
distribute books at a lower price than could 
the South. 

Alarmed at these stubborn factors, the 
friends of a Southern house used an unlooked 
for agency, W. G. Brow t nlow, who was there, 
bold as a lion, and not averse to notoriety ! 
At that date he was wonderfully Southern. 
He never did any thing by halves — "a mono- 



1 82 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



maniac for the time on any question that 
enlisted his feelings," as he confessed him- 
self in an editorial on the temperance question. 
Well, Brownlow was in Columbus, Ga., when 
the proposition to establish a publishing 
house of their own was before the Southern 
General Conference. Before this, they had 
been publishing by contract or buying from 
other houses, through an agent. Now the 
debate was up, and the scales were poised! 
To give the tip of the beam in favor of a South- 
ern house, Brownlow took a strong hand. In 
flaming style it was announced that "Brown- 
low would speak at night" on the absorbing 
question. The crowd was there ; warm-hearted 
Southern women were there ; members of 
the General Conference were there. A hur- 
rah and a vote fallowed the artful harangue ; 
the wooden horse was led into Troy ! Brown- 
low was no common man. He it was who 
debated with Pryne in Philadelphia in 1858; 
he it was who succeeded Andrew Johnson 
as military governor of Tennessee when 
Johnson became Vice-president with Lincoln 
in 1865 ; he it was that became United States 
senator ; he it was that did more to re-intro- 
duce the Methodist Episcopal Church into 
East Tennessee and the South than any 
other man ! 



THE BOOK BUSINESS. 



183 



Now, what his speech at Columbus was 
the reader must guess. Just before that 
time he made some utterances ; and just 
after, he spoke again. It is reasonable 
to guess that the middle utterances were 
rasping, like the others. Here is a letter 
from Rev. W. H. Bates: 

w Knoxville, November 20, 1885. 

"Dear Brother Brunner, — Yours of the 19th 
received, and I comply with your request. In the 
Spring of 1853 or '54 (I was then stationed at 
Chattanooga) the Grand Division of the Sons of 
Temperance appointed Brownlow and myself to 
travel South and solicit funds for the liquidation of 
a debt that hung over their new hall. The objective 
point was Charleston, S. C, and other points along 
the railroad. We selected Charleston, as it was the 
place for the meeting of the Southern Commercial 
Convention. Mr. Brownlow's first speech surprised 
me. The larger portion was political — said nothing 
about temperance till at the close. The principal 
part of his speech, a discussion of the 'Dred Scott 
case/ abolitionism, * underground railroads,' and the 
abuse of the 'whole Yankee nation/ and Harriet 
Beecher Stowe in particular. 1 Uncle Tom's Cabin' 
was being circulated all over the South — a bomb- 
shell in the camp ! His invectives against the 
author of that book were very severe ; his wit and 
sarcasm were applauded to the echo. 

" 'Ladies and gentlemen, — I have seen Harriet 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Beecher Stowe/ . . . [Omitted, as too coarse 
for these pages.] 

"To show his aversion to the Yankees, he said: 
" 4 When I am dead, I want my friends to bury 
me in a coffin open at both ends ; then, if the 
Yankees come up one way, I may get out at the 
other end ! For my part, I am in favor of annex- 
ing the Island of Cuba, and cutting loose from the 

whole Yankee nation and making a grand 

Southern Confederacy of our own/ 

"At Newnan I remonstrated with him — told 
him our mission was to raise money for the hall ; 
that many Northern men had settled through the 
South who were thoroughly in sympathy and feel- 
ing with the South, and we ought not to offend 
them. He replied, Til fix it all right/ So, at 
night, when he touched off the Yankees (as usual), 
he said : 

" * When I speak of the Yankees, I do n't mean 
those who have come down among us and got puri- 
fied, but those who come down, marry our daugh- 
ters, sell their negroes, pocket the money, and still 
abuse the Southern people/ 

<4 I thought if that was the way he apologized, 
I would say no more about it. 

"(Signed,) W. H. Bates." 

Such was Brownlow just before he made his 
Columbus speech. Just afterward he had his 
debate at Philadelphia with Pryne. The ques- 
tion there was, " Ought American slavery to 



THE BOOK BUSINESS. 



I8 5 



be perpetuated ?" Brownlow championed the 
affirmative. Here are a few of his sayings : 

"If none but Yankees and unmiti- 
gated Northern abolitionists come down upon us," 
etc. 

"If, however, at any time, an army of aboli- 
tionists from the North shall conclude to make a 
descent upon the slave-holders of the South, and 
this gentleman accompanies the army, I will thank 
him to let me know which regiment he is in." — 
Debates, p. 109. 

"Really, the only way to civilize and Christian- 
ize Africa is to annex that vast continent to the 
United States, and let our people reduce them to 
slavery, set them to work, and thus develop the 
resources of Africa." — lb. p. 252. 

"Behind the cotton bales, in time of war, our 
armies take shelter; while, in time of peace, our 
cotton bales employ the shipping of at least half 
the American commerce, etc. . . . And these 
rights we intend to enjoy, or, to a man, we will die 
along Mason and Dixon's Line, with our faces 
looking North ! . We have one million 

men on our muster rolls, and not 792,87.6, as Mr. 
Pryne asserts. At any time, upon short notice, 
the South can raise, equip, and maintain in the 
field a larger force than any other power on 
earth can send against her — men too, brought up 
on horseback, and in active life, with guns in their 
hands — men who will not desert their colors as 
some of your Northern men have done." — Debate, 
pp. 264-5. 



1 86 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

"We came honestly by our slaves at the 
South — we are treating them as the law of God 
directs- — and before we will have them seized upon 
and carried off by abolitionists we will pour out 
our blood as freely as we would pour out water. 
The South is able to take care of herself, and she 
intends to do it at all hazards, and to the last ex- 
tremity." — Ibid., pp. 270-1. 

Thus spoke Brownlow — " before and after." 
The reader can now guess what he said at 
Columbus.* 

"An interesting question before the General 
Conference of 1854, at Columbus, Georgia, was the 
policy and location of the Publishing House/ 1 — 
McTyeire's History of Methodism, p. 659. 

How that question was carried the reader 
can guess ! 

To throw additional light on the subject, 
we give a statement of the venerable James 
Atkins, Sen., now (1886) presiding elder 
on the Tallahassee District, Florida : 

" Monticello, Florida, November 28, 1885. 
"Rev. J. H. Brunner, — Dear Brother: Your 
letter of the 17th instant came to hand a few days 
ago. Glad to hear from you once more. Yes; I 
was in the General Conference at Columbus, 
Georgia, and heard the discussion that resulted in 
the location of the Publishing House at Nashville, 



*That speech cost the South dearly. 



THE BOOK BUSINESS. 



I8 7 



Tennessee, but I do not remember the arguments, 
well enough to give even an outline of them. Dr. 
Green and Dr. McFerrin were the chief speakers 
in favor of doing our own publishing, and of locating 
the Publishing House at Nashville. Dr. McFer- 
rin^ wife died, and he went home to Nashville, 
and Dr. Green had the management of that side 
of the question more than any other man ; and, 
perhaps, his great powers of debate and his con- 
summate skill in managing a case were never more 
fully called forth than on that occasion. He an- 
swered with great readiness and facility every 
objection to the change of our policy, and to 
locating the house at Nashville. He had the 
popular side of the question ; for the other plan 
had already involved the Church to some extent, 
and it was furnishing employment to others instead 
of our own people; and if there was any thing 
to be made by the actual publication of books, 
we were giving that advantage to others out- 
side of our Church, and in another section of the 
country, and to those who were enemies of the 
institutions of the South. The popular idea that 
we ought to do our own manufacturing in all 
things, entered largely into that discussion, and 
had a winning influence, and especially in the 
hands of such men as Drs. McFerrin and Green ; 
and no doubt the address of W. G. Brown- 

low, of Tennessee, on that side of the question, 
had a great influence on the minds both of the 
ministers and people ("^). 

"On the other side of the question I remember 



1 88 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

William A. Smith, of Virginia, and C. K. Mar- 
shall, of Mississippi. Dr. Smith was a very strong 
man in debate. Something was said about the 
Cumberland River running by Nashville, as a 
means of communication with other places; in 
reply to which Dr. Marshall said the Cumberland 
was a very small affair, and that, at certain seasons 
of the year, it got ' so low that it would wear the 
down from the breast of a goose to swim up 
stream. ' 

"Our Publishing House has had many difficul- 
ties to contend with, but I hope the day will come 
when all of our literature can be so cheapened, as 
that it will go into all the families in the land. 
There is now great necessity for activity in the cir- 
culation of our books and papers. 

"I fear that, either from indifference or lazi- 
ness, many of our preachers are not doing their 
duty on this subject. 

"Your brother in Christ. 

"James Atkins/ ' 

"The Methodist Book Concern, New York 
and Cincinnati, has combined a net capital, 
above all liabilities, of $1,750,000. 00." — Hol- 
ston Methodist. This after paying the South- 
ern Church the $270,000 after the separation, 
and great sums to conference claimants ! 
But the Southern Methodist Publishing 
House — what conflicts it has had! Long 
ago, would it have failed, but for the loyalty 



THE BOOK BUSINESS. 



to their Church on the part of the Southern 
preachers — as noble a band as ever have 
walked upon the planet ! What attention 
they used to give Redford at their confer- 
ences, as he would portray the situation and 
tell of his wife's and daughter's sacrifice in 
mortgaging and pledging their means to save 
the concern ! And how we used to go on the 
14 propositions " for its aid, a hundred dollars 
each, and then take books, to sell or give 
away ! And how McFerrin, the grandest 
man at the Ecumenical or Centennial, took 
up the burden of the house with prayers and 
tears, and by help of the confidence every- 
where reposed in him, got money on his 
four-per-cent bonds, to save the concern, and 
improve its trade, gradually reducing its lia- 
bilities ! But for McFerrin, what? And 
when the good old man goes with the angels, 
the next time they come for him, what of the 
house then? The " New South n may have 
so improved its commercial status, that the 
house will be able to stand alone, and thrive 
like its elder sisters at New York and Cin- 
cinnati — a noble trio, in the reunited Church. 
So mote it be. 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



METHODISM AND THE NEGROES. 

By Bishop Holsey,* (in " Wesley Memorial Volume.") 

When John Wesley was on his first visit to 
Charleston, he preached for Alexander Garden, in 
old Saint Michael's Church. He noticed, with 
pleasure, several negroes present, with one of whom 
he had a conversation. He found her sadly ignorant 
of the first principles of religious truth. When 
he made a second visit to Charleston, he conversed 
with another negro woman, whom he found in the 
same sad state. As carefully as he could, he 
taught her the way of life. Negro slavery was not 
then permitted in Georgia, and few were the negroes 
he met. But while in Savannah, steps were taken 
by him, as he writes, " towards publishing the glad 
tidings both to the African and the American 
heathens. " 

On his return voyage from Charleston to Eng- 
land, on board the ship in which he sailed, were 
two negro lads, whom he instructed in the princi- 
ples of the Christian religion. Thus early did Mr. 
Wesley manifest his deep interest in the welfare of 
the African race. His opposition to slavery and 
the slave-trade is well known. His powerful argu- 
ments against the latter largely contributed to the 
success of Wilberforce. Indeed, it may be confi- 
dently affirmed that the abolition of the African 
slave-trade was due more to England's great 

*Of the "Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in 
America.'* 



METHODISM AND THE NEGROES. I9I 



Methodist reformer than to England's great phi- 
lanthropist. 

Little did Mr. Wesley dream, while conversing 
with the negroes whom he met in America and the 
negro boys whom he was instructing in the ship on 
the Atlantic, that to the negro race, for whom he 
thus early felt such tender regard, a blessing would 
flow from his life-work greater than any other un- 
inspired man has brought to the sons and daughters 
of Ham. Without sectarian pride we may say 
that the negro race has been, under God, more 
indebted to Mr. Wesley and Methodism than to the 
combined efforts of all other Christian bodies, the 
world over. 

The space allotted to this article is too limited 
to allow more than a mere glance at the work 
wrought by the Methodists for the colored race. 
The facts herein presented will establish the truth 
of what has been said. 

In 1758 Nathaniel Gilbert, speaker of the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Antigua, one of the West India 
Islands, whose family claimed descent from Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, the great English navigator, 
and half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, became an 
adherent of Wesley while on a visit to England. 
Two of Mr. Gilbert's slaves, whom he carried with 
him to England, heard Mr. Wesley preach in their 
master's house at Wandsworth. Professing faith in 
Christ, they were baptized by Mr. Wesley. On his 
return to Antigua, in 1759, Mr. Gilbert began to 
preach to his negro slaves. For fifteen years he 
carried on the work. In 1774 he fell asleep in 



I92 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Jesus, and rested from his labors. His end was 
happy and triumphant. 

After his death, the society of about sixty mem- 
bers was kept alive eleven years by two faithful 
negresses; and then Dr. Coke sent a missionary 
to the island. The first missionary to the negroes 
the world had ever seen was Cornelius Winter, a 
Calvinistic Methodist, whom Mr. Whitefield brought 
with him to America; but the first successful mis- 
sion — among them was the one in Antigua, origi- 
nated by Nathaniel Gilbert, a lay-preacher and 
slave-holder. 

In 1758 Mr. Wesley writes: li January 17th, I 
preached at Wandsworth; a gentleman, come from 
America, has again opened a door in this desolate 
place. In the morning I preached in Mr. Gilbert's 
house. Two negro servants of his and a mulatto 
appear to be much awakened. Shall not his saving 
health be made known to all nations?" 

November 29, 1758, Mr. Wesley writes: "I 
rode to Wandsworth and baptized two negroes be- 
longing to a Mr. Gilbert, a gentleman lately come 
from Antigua. One of these is deeply convinced 
of sin ; the other rejoices in God her Savior, and 
is the first African Christian I have known. But 
shall not our Lord in due time have these heathens 
also for an inheritance?" 

" These," says Mr. Tyerman, 4 'seem simple 
entries; but, as the acorn contains the oak, so they 
contain the germ of the marvelous Methodist work 
and successes among the sable sons of benighted 
and degraded Africa from that day to this. We 



METHODISM AND THE NEGROES. 1 93 



think rot only of thousands of converted Africans 
at Namaqualand, Kaffraria, Bechuana, Natal, Sierra 
Leone, on the Gambia, and the Gold Coast in 
Dahomey and Guinea; but we also think of tens of 
thousands in the West Indies, and literally of hun- 
dreds of thousands in the Southern States of 
America. This wonderful work of God began in 
the house of Nathaniel Gilbert, a temporary so- 
journer in the town of Wandsworth." 

It is not our purpose to trace in detail the 
wonderful work of Methodism in the West India 
Islands, or how the mission extended its arms to 
the coasts of South America and Honduras. We 
simply contrast Hayti and Cuba with Barbadoes, 
Antigua, and Jamaica, in order to note the benefi- 
cent effects. While Methodism has at no time 
and nowhere accomplished all she has a capacity 
to do, and while we can not claim for Methodism 
that it has made the freedmen of these islands all 
they should be, any more than that it has extir- 
pated vice from Great Britain and Ireland; yet the 
contrast between those regions upon which it has 
exerted its true power and those upon which it 
has not, is so striking that no student of history 
can fail to see it. 

The African had been in America nearly one 
hundred and fifty years before Methodism came. 
The larger number of this race with whom it came 
first in contact were those of Maryland and Virginia. 
While they were by no means highly civilized, they 
had lost many of those features which, as barba- 

17 



194 THE UXION OF THE CHURCHES. 



rians, they had brought with them to America. 
They were no longer fetich worshipers and de- 
votees to their former superstitions. While still, 
to a great extent, the slaves of religious delusion, 
they could not, properly speaking, be called idol- 
aters. The Methodist preachers had a timely and 
early access to them in the promulgation of the 
Word of life. The simple Gospel thus proclaimed 
to them by the early evangelists had great attrac- 
tion for them. Ere long fetichism and debasing 
hallucinations fled before the light of Gospel truth. 
They were once barbarians, and would have re- 
mained so in their native land. What seemed a 
curse was destined to prove a blessing in disguise. 
Many came as slaves to this strange and far-off 
land, to die in the triumphs of the Christian faith. 
Herein is seen the providential hand of God filled 
with the greatest blessings for the enslaved, and 
counteracting the cupidity of man. 

When the Methodist Episcopal Church was 
organized in 1784, it had a large number of negro 
members in its expanding communion. 

Asbury and Coke were Englishmen, and vio- 
lently opposed to slavery; and Dr. Coke, by his 
attacks upon it, impeded to some extent the work 
among the slaves. Asbury, however, was more 
prudent, and more disposed to avoid public dis- 
cussion. The Methodist preachers in the Southern 
States were, many of them, the sons of slave-hold- 
ejs, and, while opposed to slavery, they did not 
sympathize with Dr. Coke's method of treatment, 
and so had access to master and slave. Those 



METHODISM AND THE NEGROES. 1 95 



early preachers gave great attention to the relig- 
ious interests and welfare of the colored people, and 
in consequence large numbers of them were formed 
into classes wherever they were found. The class 
leader was often the largest slave-holder. A place 
in every church was provided for the colored mem- 
bers, and the sacrament was administered to them 
as regularly as to the whites. Erelong some of 
the most intelligent and trustworthy were licensed 
to exhort and to preach. In Charleston, George- 
town, and Wilmington several large classes were 
formed. The colored often outnumbered the white 
members. In those early days there were no 
special services for this class, since in every station, 
at the stated service, the colored members occupied 
and often filled the large galleries, and joined 
heartily in the worship. Up to the year 1787 there 
was no separate report of the colored members. 
The first separate report showed that the greater 
number were in Delaware and Maryland. 

Among the leading colored preachers of earlier 
Methodism, Henry Evans, of North Carolina, occu- 
pied a distinguished and conspicuous position. He 
was a free-born negro and a mechanic ; a man of 
great integrity, and in high favor with the whites 
as well as with those of his own color. He worked 
among the stores in Wilmington and Fayetteville, 
North Carolina, and in each place founded a Church, 
to which, at his own request, white preachers were 
sent. The Fourth Street Church, in Wilmington, 
is now upon a lot deeded to the African Church, 
for such the first Methodist Church there was 



I96 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



called, and owes its place as a church-lot to the 
labors of Henry Evans. So, too, the first Church 
in Fayetteville was founded. 

What Henry Evans was to the South, Black 
Harry, as he was called, was to the North. He 
was a coal-black negro, and traveled with Asbury 
and Coke, and preached with great power. 

Castile Seeby was another famous colored 
preacher of a later day ; one to whose memory 
Bishop Capers has paid the tribute of his grateful 
love. 

Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist 
Church, was a power in New York Methodism. 

In New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Nor- 
folk, and in the rural sections of the north-west dis- 
tricts, Methodism made gratifying progress, and 
especially in the farther South. In Charleston 
Methodism made large conquests among the colored 
people. There were many persons of color in that 
city of high respectability and of considerable in- 
telligence, much of which they owed to the purity 
and simplicity of the Gospel as preached by Meth- 
odist preachers. 

Up to 1832 there were no laws in any Southern 
State prohibiting colored people from learning to 
read and write, and there were regular schools kept 
for them. Many of the colored Methodists could 
read, and many were the trusted stewards and house 
keepers of wealthy families, or porters in banks and 
stores. Many were free-born, and able to contrib- 
ute toward building and maintaining the churches. 

In the country the slaves attended the monthly 



METHODISM AND THE NEGROES. 1 97 



services of the circuit preacher, and especially the 
camp-meetings. This class of negroes might be 
called Americo- Africans, since they were several 
generations removed from the native Africans. 
Christianity had its renovating influence upon them. 
The great mission-plantation system was not as yet, 
and the slaves owned by a Christian master were 
regular participants in the family worship. There 
was, however, another very large class of negroes 
perfectly neglected. It was that class on the large 
plantations on the coast and in the newly-settled 
regions. Just before the African slave-trade was 
ended by law, large bodies of native Africans were 
brought into the country. They were purchased 
in large numbers, and placed in the rice fields and 
on the sea islands. In a climate milder, yet re- 
sembling that they left, fed abundantly with the 
food to which they were accustomed, they increased 
very rapidly. They were under the rule of their 
old African traditions, and groveling religious su- 
perstitions abounded. The children and grand- 
children of these native Africans, in general fea- 
ture and character, resembled those who had come 
from Guinea and Congo. The circuit preacher 
could not reach them, and still less the city 
preacher. If reached at all, they must be reached 
by the missionary sent especially to them. 

The Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church was organized in 18 17, and William 
Capers, afterwards bishop of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, was one of its first members. 
His great heart was stirred at the condition of the 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



masses on the large plantations, and he, in con- 
nection with James O. Andrew, afterward bishop 
of the same Church, and always the warm and the 
true friend of the negro race, devised the plan of 
colored missions. This was in 1828. Dr. Capers 
prepared catechisms, visited the plantations, se- 
cured the co operation of the planters, and mapped 
out the work. But few of the planters on the 
coast were then Methodists. They were princi- 
pally Episcopalians, who resided on their plantations 
only during the Winter months. They generally, 
however, gave a hearty co-operation, some of them 
agreeing to support the missionary. There was 
much that was disagreeable and trying in this 
mission work. The slaves themselves were but 
few removes from heathenism itself, and the ma- 
laria of the rice fields was very deadly to the white 
man. Hence, very trying were the circumstances 
under which the missionary labored. The Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church supported the missions till 
1845, ar| d then the work was continued up to 
1865 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
During twenty years the Church, South, spent not 
less than one million of dollars in this field alone. 
The work w r as continually expanding, and demand- 
ing more ministerial and financial outlay. The 
mission-plantation system grew with the opening 
of new lands, and colored missions were formed 
wherever there was any large number of negroes. 
Churches were built especially for the slaves, and 
when they were not so built the churches of the 
whites were used by them. 



METHODISM AND THE NEGROES. 1 99 



In the cities and larger towns there were 
churches especially erected for their use, and a 
missionary in a charge of them. Also, there were 
Sunday-schools, leaders, and local preachers. The 
results of this great work told upon the negro 
population. Polygamy, at one time so exten- 
sively practiced among them, ceased among those 
under Methodist influence. Many colored fami- 
lies not legally united in the marriage relation be- 
came as practically so as those of the whites. 
Thefts, drunkenness, gaming, and profanity were 
very rare among the colored people to whom the 
missionary had access. There were over two hurt- 
dred thousand members of color in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, at the time when Gen- 
eral Lee surrendered. For years, too, the laws 
prohibiting negroes to read were of no force, and 
only existed in the letter. There were many col- 
ored preachers who read well, and embellished the 
Christian character with all the graces of an up- 
right life, and preached with power. Other Chris- 
tian Churches had done a labor of love for the 
spiritual melioration of these once benighted sons 
and daughters of Ham. Yet to none do they owe 
a greater debt of gratitude than to the people 
called Methodists. . . 

The war came on, but the work among the 
colored people was not suspended ; still the faith- 
ful missionary went to his field ; still he breathed the 
often deadly malaria of the swamps ; still he trusted 
his life and the lives of his family to a people 
whom the world expected, with ax and brand, to 



200 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



carry death and ruin wherever the white man was 
powerless to protect himself; and still the Chris- 
tian negro patiently waited for the end. Even 
where he loved his master, he longed for freedom ; 
and yet he felt that no stroke for freedom, dear as 
it was, should be a bloody one. He simply 
waited. The Methodist had always been his friend. 
Many of the largest slave-holders were Methodists, 
and many, like Nathaniel Gilbert, were not uncon- 
cerned for their slaves. The Church had labored 
bravely, and was now rewarded in the greatness of 
the harvest ; but the war ended, and freedom came 
to the negro. 

Other Methodist bodies now had full access to 
the South, and with great zeal entered upon the 
work. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, im- 
poverished by the war, and scarcely able to survive 
the shock she had received, was unable to keep 
up the work she had begun and continued so long. 
She could barely hold the ground she had gained. 
During the many years she had been directing the 
evangelical work among the negroes she had been 
training a body of colored ministers, who were 
ready to take the places vacated by th? white itiner- 
ant and local preachers. Many of these retained 
their connection with the Church South. Many of 
the ablest went with other bodies of Methodists. 
There was now aroused a great interest in the 
evangelization of the colored race on the part of 
the Northern people. They felt that every obliga- 
tion required that they should do something for 



METHODISM AND THE NEGROES, 



201 



the negro, and at once they began their work. 
They found the field already prepared and white to 
the harvest. Preachers, leaders, and church-build- 
ings were at hand. Culture was needed, and es- 
pecially organization for self-help, for hitherto the 
colored people had been provided for by others. 
They must now learn to provide for themselves. 
The African Methodist Episcopal Church had a 
corps of able bishops and a compact organization. 
So had the Zion Methodists, who differed from the 
African Methodist in but little more than name. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church, rich and power- 
ful, also came into the field. The Methodist 
Episcopal Church established schools and colleges, 
and has been liberal and energetic. The other 
bodies have shown the same zeal. The Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, gave to the colored 
Church which it had set up — the Colored Methodist 
Episcopal Church in America — all the church-build- 
ings which it had erected for its colored members, and 
saw it organized for important and successful work. 

The effects of Methodism upon the negro race 
in the South — and of the Baptists, the only other 
body of Christians who had done much for the ne- 
groes — was seen during and after the late war. The 
negroes rose in no insurrection. They waited the 
issue patiently, and when the end came and they 
were free, they accepted their freedom as of God. 
No Christian leader among them has ever been 
accused of any agitation that would result in blood- 
shed. They felt that God in his providence had 
said to the Christians in the South, 1 * Take these 



202 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



sons of Africa and train them for me, and in my 
time I will call for them.'" The two colored men 
who have been members of the United States 
Senate — men who, according to all testimony, have 
been noted for moderation, dignity, and purity — 
were Methodists, and of Southern birth. The con- 
gregations of colored Methodists thrown upon their 
own resources have nobly met the demands, and 
now day-schools and Sunday-schools and churches 
are found all over the country. 

There is another result which we ought not to 
disregard. It is the influence of Methodism in 
welding the hearts of the races together. The 
white Methodists yearned toward their black 
brethren. The preachers who had preached to 
them, the Sunday-school teachers who had taught 
them, the class-leaders who had examined them, 
and the bishops who had watched over them, could 
not be hostile to them ; and the colored race could 
not but feel warmly towards those who had led 
them to Christ. So, while there was political di- 
vision, there was religious fellowship. As to the 
future, it is full of promise. When Colquitt, the 
Democratic governor of Georgia, leads the religious 
services of the colored people, by far the most of 
whom are opposed to his political views ; and when 
a Republican colored congressman from his salary 
appropriates a liberal part to support the family of 
his old owner, impoverished by the war, every 
thing points to peace between the races, and pros- 
perity for both, and to this end we believe Method- 
ism has been the chief contributor. 



WONDERFUL RESULT. 



203 



WONDERFUL RESULT. 

The annals of time contain no such record 
as the negroes in the South made for them- 
selves in the late war between the States of 
our Union. The great bulk of these were 
slaves at that time — slaves for life, if the 
Confederate States maintained their nation- 
ality, but slaves no longer if the ' ' Stars and 
Bars," the new flag, went down in the smoke 
of battle. What an incentive for these slaves 
to strike for their freedom ! But not an in- 
surrection was made ; not an assassination 
attempted ; not a murder planned ; not a 
threat heard — among the three millions of 
slaves ! They waited and prayed, but kindly 
cared for their white masters and mistresses. 
Many went along with young masters, to wait 
upon them in the tented field, to nurse them 
when sick, to care for them when wounded — 
perchance to bring back their dead bodies to 
the family burying-ground. Others guarded 
the homestead, the mother and children, while 
the man of the house was gone to the wars. 
Their fidelity deserves a monument second to 
none that adorns our planet. Bishop Holsey, 
of the Colored Church, truthfully tells us that 
wonderful result is due to the evangelization 



204 TIIE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



of the slaves, effected mainly by the Method- 
ist preachers, but aided by those of the Bap- 
tist faith. Had not these negroes been 
evangelized and humanized in this way, what 
a different record might have been made, 

"Of midnight burnings red," 

of bloody insurrections, and of murders dire — 
a picture too dreadful to contemplate! 

An unseen Hand had long been at work 
for the good of both the whites and the 
blacks — men and women and innocent chil- 
dren ! But who can say w r hich race gained 
the greater good thereby? 

"It is a matter of history that at one period 
during the war, the white women and children, 
and their treasures, were practically left in charge 
of the negroes. The negroes' faithfulness at that 
period and under those circumstances has no par- 
allel/' — Joseph Chandler Harris, in {Boston) 
Youths Companion, i8Sj. 



BLESSING OLD AFRICA. 

From the converted negroes in our South- 
land, Bishop Holsey believes " A tidal wave 
of blessings must sweep back upon the 
shores of Africa." See Wesley Memo?-ial 



BLESSING OLD AFRICA. 



205 



Volume. Commenting on this Dr. Haygood 
remarks : 

"In such a work as this, all Methodism, I do 
not say American Methodism only, should unite 
as one body and one soul. But the call is pre- 
eminently to American Methodism and peculiarly 
to American Episcopal Methodism. This pre- 
eminent and special call grows out of the relations 
these Methodisms sustain to each other and to the 
negroes; also out of the opportunity God gives 
them, as indicated and measured by the greatness 
of their numbers and their power. If once our 
brother in black was the innocent occasion of an tin- 
fraternal partvig, may it not be some day his high 
office, in the good providence of God, to unite us again, 
at least in all the love and sympathy of a genuine 
and deathless brotherhood of mutual help and gen- 
uine co-operation ? 

"Is there a more inspiring thought in connec- 
tion with the future of the Christian religion — mil- 
lions of Christianized negroes in America sending 
and carrying the Gospel, that alone brings light 
and immortality to light, to uncounted millions in 
their native Africa, while millions of Christians of 
the white race join hands and hearts in helping on 
the glorious work? There never existed in the 
circumstances and relations of the two races such 
an opportunity of doing missionary work on a con- 
tinent-wide plan. Would God there were some 
Christian Moses or Paul to lead the triumphant 
march ! There never was a work for God and man 



206 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



in which the good angels would more gladly 
join. 

" 0, thou Christ of God! Thou 1 mightiest 
among the holy and holiest among the mighty ! ' 
Thou who didst take upon thyself 4 the form of a 
servant' that thou mightest make all men free, 
give to us the 4 fullness of thy spirit/ that we, 
thy unworthy disciples, may have wisdom and 
grace and courage to make ready for the duties of 
the morrow by faithfully performing all the duty 
of to-day, towards these our brethren who came 
unwillingly to our guardianship long before our 
fathers were born; whom thou hast kept as 'a 
peculiar people ' in our midst, and hast blessed be- 
yond any other people who were ever enslaved; 
whom thou hast made free by many and strange 
providences, and to whom thou hast given a mes- 
sage of hope and salvation for multiplied millions 
of their kindred who wait for thy coming as 'those 
who watch for the morning.'" — Our Brother in 
Black, pp. 249-52. 



-RACE PREJUDICE." 

This is the subject of a very readable 
article in the North American Review, by 
Gail Hamilton. She is one of the spright- 
liest of American writers, and in this paper 
discusses a subject of never-failing interest 
to Americans — particularly to Americans in 
the Southern States. 



» 



"RACE prejudice: 



207 



Errors in sentiment on this subject have 
sometimes disturbed the repose of Churches 
as well as of individuals. Our gifted author- 
ess has no fanatical crotchets on the race 
question. She very properly argues that the 
social mixing of the races is a matter of no 
concern to the Churches. And the more it 
is tampered with and dogmatized about, the 
worse for both races and the peace of the 
country. It is true that the negro hugs his 
race instinct as closely as does the Cauca- 
sian, and to legislate against it is as futile as 
unphilosophical. We reproduce the follow- 
ing from the article in the North American : 

4 'If the races are providential, the race line is 
providential. If it is God who made the white 
man white and the black man black, it is God who 
made each choose to consort with his own. To say 
that Providence intended the race line to be per- 
petuated is not to lay to Providence the bondage, 
injustice, and anguish which have attended its per- 
petuation. It is abundantly worth while to throw 
life and treasure and national existence into the 
resolution that no human being shall be enslaved. 
It is better to die a thousand deaths than to do 
this great wrong against man and sin against God. 
But it is not worth while to put even the contents 
of one contribution box into an attempt to secure 
by external pressure what is much better left to 
the working of natural cause, the adjustment of 



208 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



social relations. It is kicking against the pricks 
when the-re is no occasion to kick at all." . 
41 Nor will it be bad discipline for the Congrega- 
tionalists to tarry in Jericho until their beards be 
grown, and they have learned that while we have 
the right and are under obligation to demand in 
the South absolute political equality and civil 
rights for all, we have no right whatever to meddle 
with the social relations or the ecclesiastical affini- 
ties in the South; that we might just as reasonably 
refuse to help to educate their ignorant masses un- 
less the white will wear a three-cornered hat in- 
stead of a derby, as refuse it unless the white and 
black will go to the same church ; that, in short, 
the pigments of Providence are not obliterated be- 
cause we stubbornly prove ourselves to be color- 
blind." 

On this general subject, a more compe- 
tent and acceptable witness can hardly be 
found than Atticus G. Haygood, D. D., presi- 
dent of Emory College, Georgia. His book, 
" Our Brother in Black, " may do us service 
here, and from it we again take a few ex- 
tracts ; pp. 220-235. 

"Their churches are the centers of their social 
and religious life. . . . The hope of the Afri- 
can race in this country is largely in its pulpit. 

No other tongue can speak to the negro's 
ear like a negro's tongue. All races are so. . 
The negro preachers are, as a class, improving. 

The measure of their capacity I do not 



"RACE prejudice:' 1 



209 



know; perhaps no man knows. . . . They go 
their length for their Churches. . . . The 
great majority of them belong to Churches, not 
of their own "faith and order," but of their own 
"race and color." This tendency showed itself in 
many ways in the South before emancipation, . . . 
and has expressed itself on a very large scale 
since they were set free. ... It was the same 
instinct, for instinct it is, that led to the formation 
of a number of African Church organizations in 
the North long ago. . . . And, as this whole 
problem appears to me, the hand of God is in it. 

Now the Methodist Episcopal Church has 
done very nearly its best for the colored race in the 
South, and its best means a great deal. . 
They began with mixed conferences, not distin- 
guishing colors in statistics or appointments — . . . 
There has been no lack to educate the colored peo- 
ple to forget their color. . . . But nature 
asserts herself. In nearly all the States the confer- 
ences are now unmixed. . . . As oil and 
water diligently shaken together in a vessel mix for 
a time, . . . when the mixture settles, lo ! 
the oil and water touch, but are distinct. . 
Why this un-mixing? At whose instance? Not 
at the instance of the white preachers. 
But instinct is supreme; the colored brethren were 
restless till they had their own conferences. . . . 
Baptist negroes, also, like globules of mercy, have 
run together. So of the rest, where there have been 
numbers large enough. . . . This instinct will 

never be satisfied till it realizes itself in complete 

18 



210 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES, 



separations. . . . We may, all of us, as well 
adjust our plans to the determined and inevitable 
movements of this instinct. . . . Instinct is 
like the life-force that expresses itself, in life — or 
in death." 

* i There is not a single colored congregation in 
the entire South, served by a white pastor — -mark 
that." — Bishop Keener, in New Orleans Christian 
Advocate., December 17 , 1883. 

The same bishop reports the South Caro- 
lina Conference of the Church, South, for 
same year 1885 : 

'•White membership 54,858; . . . 76 col- 
ored members — the most of them sextons. Think 
of our Church in South Carolina as solidly white!" 

The plea made by the Southern preachers 
in organizing the Southern Church, of having 
access to the colored people, is a plea no 
longer: " the glory has departed !" 



OUR AFRICAN BRETHREN. 

One of the leading traits in human nature 
is imitation. We find it in children — the 
little boy tries to follow the example of his 
father; and the girl, that of her mother. 
Our African brethren, long in bondage, were 
accustomed to look up to the white race — - 



OUR AFRICAN BRETHREN, 



211 



learned their language, dressed in their cos- 
tume, and adopted their religion, most of 
them becoming Methodists and Baptists, be- 
cause these denominations predominated in 
the Southern States. The white Meth- 
odists were trying separate organizations ; 
why not the colored Methodists do likewise ? 
That is just what might have been expected 
of them ; and that is what we find. There 
were the " African Methodist Episcopal 
Church/' and "African Methodist Episcopal 
Zion Church 99 — about as like as two peas; 
and to add a super-abundance, the Meth- 
^odist Episcopal Church, South, by General 
Conference recommendation, massed what 
colored members she had left after the Con- 
federate war, and organized them into the 
u Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in 
America" — the "fifth wheel to the wagon" — 
Now we have three sets of colored bishops 
in the land' setting up altar-against-altar 
economies ; three sets of presiding elders 
pushing each his claim in the same districts ; 
three sets of pastors worrying the same peo- 
ple for churches, parsonages, and supports. 
How well they imitate their white neighbors 
the devil too w x ell knows, as he helps them 
traduce one another's doings, as he helps the 
whites ! 



212 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Here is a town with enough negroes to 
form one respectable, active, working Church, 
and here are worthy members too. " In 
union there is strength," but in division is 
weakness, and the devil knows it well. 
Three preachers rally the colored people 
under three names — the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, " de mudder Chu } ch /" the 
African Methodist Episcopal. Zion Church, 
"dehallehiyee Chuck" the Colored Methodist 
Episcopal Church in America, "'de Chu ch set 
up by de white foke" — and up go three 
" shanties" as places for worship, small, 
untidy, uncomfortable, unfinished, "for the 
want of means " — three sparse congregations 
mustered now and then on forlorn duty — 
rivalries and proselyting, etc. Now will any 
candid man tell us that such a state of things 
should continue all over these broad lands 
forever ? No ; let the white Methodists set 
them a better example by a union of the two 
Episcopal Methodisms. The example would 
be as contagious as coughing in a country 
school ! The three alienated Colored Meth- 
odist Episcopal Churches would run together 
like so many globules of quicksilver, and 
become a compact body wielding power and 
prestige, and soon counting its members by 
the million ! The educational and other in- 



METHODIST PRO TEST ANT CHURCH. 2 1 3 

terests of the colored people would be 
strangely strengthened at once. Such a 
turn ought to be given to their affairs. A 
union of the white Methodisms would soon 
be followed by a union of the colored. 
What a boon to all! 



METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. 

American Methodism inherited from En- 
glish Methodism two questions that would 
not rest — the right of stationing the preach- 
ers and the right of holding slaves ; the 
former question rent the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in 1828, and the latter in 1844; the 
former heralded in the Protestant Methodist 
Church, without bishops ; the latter, the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with 
slavery annexed. 

O'Kelleyism was the offspring of the agi- 
tation on the stationing power ; and Meth- 
odist Protestantism also came from the same 
prolific source. A stationing committee or 
elective presiding elders was the demand on 
the one hand ; episcopal appointments, on 
the other. In 1827 the opposers of so pro- 
nounced episcopal prerogative held a con- 
vention in Baltimore, to lay down a platform 



214 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

of principles, and to devise measures pre- 
paratory to the efforts they expected to 
' make in the General Conference to meet in 
Pittsburg the next year. This movement 
aroused the conservative party to action. 
Both sides showed an abundance of temper. 
Under such excitement concessions are not 
so likely to occur as are secessions. As is 
too often the case, principles recede from 
vision as personalities come into view. The 
desire of victory is strong in the human 
mind. Bodies charged with electricity are 
prone to part. Into the new organization, 
the Methodist Protestant Church, went many 
of the wealthiest and some of the best mem- 
bers of the old Church at many places, 
especially in Cincinnati, Pittsburg, and Bal- 
timore. Among these were able preachers, 
local and traveling, such as Asa Shinn, 
Cornelius Springer, and Nicholas Snethen. 
A pure doctrine has been theirs. As a 
denomination they have lagged, though it 
has had devout congregations and beauti- 
ful exemplifications of personal piety. Its 
hobby has been a jealous dread of ''popish 
power" in the stationing of preachers. Its 
main plank in the original platform (lay- 
representation) has become the common 
property of all the Methodisms in Europe 



METHODIST PROTESTANT SCHEME. 2 1 5 



and America. So far, at least, has it been 
acknowledged to be right. Query : Had no 
schism occurred, could not these leaders 
have leavened the whole Church from within 
her pales ? and would not the cause of Christ 
have gained thereby? Hasty action is not 
always commendable. " Act in haste , and 
repent at leisure/ 9 is the proverb that holds 
here as much as anywhere else. The efforts 
to ally themselves with other bodies, as de- 
tailed in these pages, show the Methodist 
Protestants feel themselves ill at ease. 



METHODIST PROTESTANT SCHEME. 

The General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, held in New Or- 
leans. May 3, 1866, adopted the following 
resolution : 

"Resolved, That a commission, consisting of 
five members of this body and two bishops, be 
appointed to confer with a commission, if one be 
appointed, from the General Conference of the 
Methodist Protestant Church, now in session in 
Georgetown, District of Columbia, on the subject of 
a union between the Methodist Protestant Church 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with 
power to settle the union;" 



2l6 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Accordingly the commission was ap- 
pointed : Bishops Pierce and McTyeire, Revs. 
C. F. Deems, J. E. Evans, S. Register, N. 
Head, and L. M. Lee. 

The Methodist Protestant Church took ap- 
propriate action. Their commissioners were 
as follows: 

Maryland — Rev. S. B. Southerland, L. J. Cox, Jr. 
Virginia — Rev. J. G. Whitfield, C. W. Button. 
North Carolina— -Rev. W. H. Wills, G. J. 
Cherry. 

Tennessee — Rev. B. F. Duggan. 
Georgia — Rev. F. H. M. Henderson, J. Bass. 
Alabama — Rev. F. L. B. Shaver, P. T. Graves. 
Mississippi — Rev. P. H. Napier, P. Loper. 

N. Mississippi— Rev. A. A. Houston, W. R. 
Montgomery. 

These commissions assembled at Mont- 
gomery, May 8, 1867. When personally in- 
troduced they held free consultations for some 
time, exhibiting Christian regard. Bishop 
McTyeire thought there was nothing which 
had essentially separated the two Churches 
that had not been removed, and hoped they 
would wed and be one family. Dr. Lee was 
free to declare that the separation in 1828 
was a sad day for Methodism ; that the last 
dregs of bitterness engendered by the sep- 
aration were drained from his soul ; and that 



METHODIST PROTESTANT SCHEME. 2 1 J 



he had been assiduously laboring for a re- 
union. Rev. J. E. Evans indorsed what his 
colleagues had said, favored the union, and 
hoped it would be consummated. The Meth- 
odist Protestant brethren gave them a warm 
welcome, and heartily reciprocated their sen- 
timents of affection, and agreed with them 
that a visible union of the two branches of 
Methodism is desirable, if such union could 
be effected on terms mutually agreeable. 

The commissioners of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, submitted the following 
proposition : 

"We propose a formal and corporate union of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the 
Methodist Protestant Church. The separation orig- 
inally took place because lay-representation was 
denied. The principle being now conceded and 
incorporated into the economy of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, we think there is no 
insuperable bar to such union of the two bodies 
respectively represented by us.* 

"We propose a union with your ministers, 
itinerant and local, and your members, each in 
their several relations, and entitled to all the rights 
and privileges common to our own ministers and 
members, under the Discipline of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South." 



*How like Janes's proposition to the Southern Church! 

19 



2l8 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



The following response was made : 

"TERMS OF UNION. 

"I. Strike out of the Church name the word 

South. 

"2. If Episcopal be retained in the name, Prot- 
estant to be incorporated. 

4 '3. Dispense with the presiding eldership. 

4 4 4. Have as many bishops as annual con- 
ferences. 

44 5. In the selection of new bishops, what are 
now our annual conferences shall have the privi- 
lege of nominating from their present members their 
first bishops, and the General Conference shall 
elect said nominees. 

44 6. Itinerant ministers to have the right of 
appeal from the stationing power. 

4 4 7. Maryland Conference, in the event of 
union, to be allowed to decide upon its own 
name, ministerial membership, and boundaries be 
not extended farther south than the States of 
Maryland and Delaware, and the District of Co- 
lumbia and the station in Alexandria. 

4 4 8. Our system of trial of accused ministers 
and members, or its equivalent. 

"9. No minister to be transferred from one 
conference to another without his own consent and 
the consent of the conference to which he is trans- 
ferred. 

44 10. Local preachers and ministers to be put 
upon a par with itinerant preachers and ministers, 
in regard to eligibility to orders. 



METHODIST PRO TEST ANT SCHEME. 2 1 9 

"II. Local ministers to be alike eligible with 
itinerant ministers to a seat in the General Con- 
ference. 

"12. Each station, circuit, and mission to be 
allowed one delegate to the annual conference; in 
the former to be elected by the male members; in 
the two latter, by the quarterly conference. 

"13. No veto power to be conceded to the 
bishops. 

4 4 14. Incorporate in the Discipline the following : 
(Art. VIII, Sec. 5,) The ministry and laymen shall 
deliberate in one body; but if, upon the final pas- 
sage of any question, it be required by three mem- 
bers, the ministers and laymen shall vote sepa- 
rately, and the concurrence of a majority of both 
classes of representatives shall be necessary to con- 
stitute a vote of the conference. A similar regu- 
lation shall be observed in the annual conference. 

"15. In the annual conference the laity shall 
have the right to participate in all the business, ex- 
cept such as relates to the trial of ministers and 
preachers.* ' 

If comparisons were not in bad taste, the 
reader might well afford to contrast the two 
papers thus brought into the arena of debate. 

A free and general conversation ensued 
as to the extent and meaning of sundry 
items. On the next day the two commis- 
sions met again. The representatives of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, replied 



220 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

seriatim to the terms proposed to them, in 
substance ; that the word Soitth could be 
eliminated, but that the word Protestant was 
unnecessary in the name; that the presiding 
eldership is a question for General Confer- 
ence action; that there was a tendency to 
have a larger number of bishops ; that stipu- 
lation as to electing bishops nominated by 
the annual conference was beyond the 
power of the commissioners ; that appeals 
from the appointing power would impair 
effective supply of pastors ; that the bound- 
ary of the Maryland Conference is safest in 
the hands of the General Conference; that 
the two Churches had about the same system 
of trial ; that the power to transfer is safe in 
the present usage ; that the tendency is to 
put itinerant and local preachers upon a par 
as to eligibility to orders ; that a fair ratio 
of representation in the General Conference 
is already allowed local preachers ; that a too 
numerous representation would be cumber- 
some ; that the veto power was a mooted 
question, not under control of commission- 
ers ; that a division of vote in the General 
Conference on a call of one-fifth was already 
provided for, while such a measure in an 
annual conference might embarrass pro- 
ceedings ; and that the right of the laity to 



ME THODIST PRO TEST ANT SCHEME. 2 2 1 

vote on all questions might safely rest with 
the General Conference. 

Some days elapsed, when the Methodist 
Protestant commissioners made to their Gen- 
eral Convention then sitting, three reports. 
The first contained the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That the whole subject be referred 
for final action to our several annual conferences, 
and that the president thereof be requested to an- 
nounce the results to the commissioners of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, expressing the 
hope that the conferences may act as a unit." 

The second was a minority report, recom- 
mending acceptance of the terms proposed 
by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
" as liberal, hopeful, and indicative of an 
early affirmation of all the points of differ- 
ence, and therefore we accept them and 
recommend to our annual conferences action 
in harmony with acceptance/ 9 

The third report was from one of the 
minority, dissenting from the majority report : 
* 4 does not agree to abide the decision of the 
conferences without the concurrence of at 
least a majority of the several annual con- 
ferences/' 

The convention finally agreed : 

1 ' That the convention take no decisive action 
at this time, but that the whole subject be held in 



222 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



abeyance and under advisement by the several an- 
nual conferences, calmly awaiting the development 
and indications of Providence." 

The convention adjourned 17th of May. 
The Montgomery Mail of the next day said : 

"The convention of the Methodist Protestant 
Church, which has been in session in this city for 
several days past, adjourned yesterday. The ses- 
sion has been most harmonious, and productive of 
much good feeling and religious intercourse, though 
the union of the two Methodist Churches was not 
consummated. A move, however, in that direc- 
tion has been made." 

A few days later the Nashville Christian 
Advocate contained the following communi- 
cation, which will show the drift of the writer's 
opinion at that critical period : 

THE F'ENDIINra UNION. 

Mr. Editor: — The proceedings at Montgomery 
in relation to the proposed union of the Methodist 
Protestant Church and the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, were creditable to all concerned. 
Still, the union, though desired by all, was not 
consummated, for reasons patent to minds skilled 
in the science of human nature. 

That the proposed union would bring glory to 
God, we firmly believe. This is reason enough to 
make the subject one of prayerful solicitude. De- 
nominational selfishness should have no place in 
these negotiations. Each party should feel dis- 
posed to meet the other on half-way ground. In 



THE PENDING UNION. 



223 



this way, and in no other, the union may yet be 
perfected. 

Since the " Protestants " separated from us we 
have added a new suffix to our name. Are they 
to blame when they ask its removal ? Suppose the 
suffix removed, then would our name be identical 
with that of another Church in the land. Hence 
the necessity of a new name. And here is the 
difficulty — to find a new name that will please 
every body in so large a connection ! How would 
this one answer — " The United Methodist 
Church ?" Can we find one that will suit all par- 
ties any better? The "Protestant" brethren? 
Brother Ditzler and his friends in Illinois and In- 
diana? The brethren in California and Oregon? 
In Maryland ? Kentucky ? Missouri ? Kansas ? 
Arkansas? The Gulf States? Georgia? The 
Carolinas ? Virginia ? Tennessee ? China ? We 
think not. v 

The name being accepted by vote of all the 
Annual Conferences the current year, can not the 
union be consummated at the time and place sug- 
gested by the 1 4 Protestants " — at Lynchburg, May, 
1868? And can not all other matters be safely de- 
ferred to a General Conference, composed of dele- 
gates from all the parties at interest, chosen upon 
the ratio of representation adopted by the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South? 

Such an arrangement would afford an instance 
of moral sublimity worthy of the large and intelli- 
gent ecclesiastical bodies concerned, 

J. H. Brunner. 

June 6, 1867. 



224 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



But the proposed union of the Southern 
and the Protestant Methodist Churches 
failed — in part. In the South, especially, 
many of the Protestants found their way into 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
Had they all done so, it is believed that the 
cause of Christ would have gained thereby. 
" In union there is strength." 

The more Northern portion of the Meth- 
odist Protestants formed an alliance with 
the " Methodist Church," so styled for dis- 
tinction. For doing so, they have our thanks, 
and the thanks of millions. (See " One 
Breach Healed," in this volume.) 



-CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES." 

The proceedings detailed in the last chap- 
ter, respecting the proposed union between 
the « Protestant " and the " Southern " 
Methodist Churches, are an interesting study. 
But the project failed, in part. The readi- 
ness of the Southerners is seen in all that 
was done. The hitches came from the other 
side — the weaker power. Is there not a 
profound philosophy apparent here ? The 
weaker, knowing the stronger can care for 
itself, wants guaranties. Turn the tables ; 



"CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES." 22$ 

put this same Southern Church into a nego- 
tiation with the Northern Methodism on the 
subject of union, as was done at Memphis, 
in 1870, as is shown elsewhere in these pages, 
and what do we find ? Why, the weaker 
body practices fencing right away. M Cir- 
cumstances alter cases and the most po- 
tent argument this writer has heard current 
among Southern Methodists as against the 
union of the two Episcopal Methodisms is 
that the North will dominate the South in 
the election of bishops and other connec- 
tional officers, etc. This explains why it is 
that so many who favored a union with the 
Methodist Protestant Church now oppose 
a union with a much stronger body, the 
Northern Methodists. 

Seeing the proposed union with the " Prot- 
estant Methodists" was a doubtful matter, 
and that the trouble grew partly out of a 
want of a name acceptable to both parties, 
and having suggested United Methodist 
Church, as the name that was wanted, this 
writer published another suggestion. This 
was dated the September of 1868, and pub- 
lished in the Nashville Advocate, urging the 
calling of a convention of all bodies of Meth- 
odists in our country, to meet in Baltimore, 
Christmas, 1884 — the Centenary of our or- 



226 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

ganization in America — to form such a 
United Methodist Church. Said a witty lady 
friend — "You are wise to put it off so long — 
17 years! We shall all be dead by that 
time." But the time came — there was a 
14 Centennial Conference" — and much hand- 
shaking — but no "convention " to put an end 
to needless schism. The Canadian Meth- 
odist bodies have acted more wisely : they 
have had a convention to settle their differ- 
ences, and have become one body in Christ. 
And such prosperity as has followed their 
union was never realized by the Dominion 
Methodists before. God has set his seal of 
approbation upon their praiseworthy pro- 
ceedings. Of course, each body had to 
make some sacrifice, as every man has to do 
who becomes a member of civil society — as 
each colony had to do to become a mem- 
ber of the Federal Union ! 

But 1884 passed, and the two Episcopal 
Methodisms are still at outs — still rearing 
altar against altar in ten thousand hamlets 
and towns and cities at home, and abroad 
beyond the seas ! 



JUST SO. 



227 



JUST SO. 

' ' There is enough truth in the charges that 
one section of this nation may bring against the 
other to keep up an everlasting quarrel by men of 
small brains and bad hearts in both sections. There 
is enough of broad patriotism and Christian neigh- 
borliness in the land to adjust all remaining differ- 
ences, and to perpetuate and perfect the peace we 
enjoy, if good men everywhere would only throw 
off the domination of the narrow and malignant, 
and stand together. It is time that Christian men 
had in this way shown their capacity for real self- 
government." — Dr. Fitzgerald, in Nashville Advocate. 

Just so ! But, good doctor, 

If sinners be in sorry plight 

Because too glad to disagree, 
Shall saints fall out and even fight 

'Bout tweedledum and tweedle-dee ? 

Must not the tendency of the antagonism 
between the two Methodisms, each the 
strongest denomination of its section, be to 
estrange the people and weaken the ties of 
our nationality ? True patriotism can but 
wish for the fraternity, not to say the unifi- 
cation, of these now antagonistic Churches. 
True religion demands the same ; political 
sectionalism is bad — Church sectionalism is 
worse. 



228 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



THE CAPE MAY COMMISSION. 

The two branches of the original Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, in order to settle 
some points of difficulty between them, ap- 
pointed certain representative men, eminent 
for their gifts and graces, to act as commis- 
sioners in settling said disputes. These 
brethren met at Cape May, New Jersey, 
August, 1876, and satisfactorily accomplished 
the work assigned them. In some regards 
this was the most remarkable assembly in 
the history of Methodism. Their 44 Address 
to the Bishops, the Ministers, and the Mem- 
bers, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South/' 
is given in Appendix Number Nine, in this 
volume, and to it the candid reader is di- 
rected, that he may know what the admitted 
relations of these two great bodies really are. 
He will find "a unanimous agreement of 
complete fraternity" — "without a dissentient 
voice" — "each of said Churches is a legiti- 
mate branch of Episcopal Methodism in the 
United States" — "one Methodist family, 
though in distinct ecclesiastical connections" — 
"that from this hour a new epoch in Meth- 
odism will begin its brighter history" — "hail 



THE CAPE MA Y COMMISSION. 



229 



each other as from auxiliary ranks of one 
great army" — u rejoice in each other's suc- 
cess" — 44 these Churches are one in spirit, 
one in purpose, and one in fellowship " — 
" no further occasion for sectional disputes" — 
" one and the same in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church and in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South" — 44 these kindred Churches," etc. 

Now, will any candid reader still hold out 
for this altar-against-altar policy which curses 
millions of square miles of 44 border work?" 
Why not the medicine suit the whole, which 
the Cape May commission recommend to 
societies — " where one or both are weak, 
that they compose their differences by uniting 
in the same communion?" 44 They should 
each receive from the other, ministers and 
members in good standing with the same 
alacrity and credit as if coming from their 
own Church." 

Suppose that either Methodism were to 
go over to the other en masse, what rejoicing 
there would be ! Well, in astronomy we are 
taught that the smaller body moves around 
the larger one. As to age and legitimacy 
the two Methodisms are even. The effort 
made by shallow minds to make either an 
illegitimate Church is repellent in its nature, 
false in fact, and full of mischief. 



230 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



SOME GOOD READING. 

Henry Bascom Ridgaway, D. D., who was 
sent as a fraternal delegate from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church to the General Conference 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
at Nashville, Tennessee, May 10, 1882, made 
a fine address. The reader hereof will find 
food for thought in the following extracts 
from that address as printed in the Daily 
Advocate : 

" I was born in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
just before the division of 1844-5 which separated 
it into two great families. Nurtured in that cradle 
of Methodism, Baltimore city, equipped for the 
ministry in the old historic conference of which 
that city is the center, I was accustomed from child- 
hood to hear the traditions of the worthy founders 
of the Church in the South, as well as in the North 
and West. The names of some of the devout, 
self-denying, and mighty men who planted Method- 
ism in your fair land were as familiar as household 
words. Such was the power and popularity of one 
of these that my father, a plain farmer on the 
eastern shore of Maryland, after listening to his 
transcendent eloquence, went home and changed 
the name of his infant son from John Wesley to 
Henry Bascom. There may be nothing in a name. 
But I can say from personal recollections, that the 



SOME GOOD READING. 



231 



first thoughts of preaching the Gospel were awakened 
in that lad's mind when, as he was nearing his 
teens, godly men put their hands on his head and 
said: 'If he only makes as good and great a man 
as Mr. Bascom.' The Church could produce but 
one Dr. Bascom in the remarkable mental qualities 
with which nature had endowed him ; but in spir- 
itual grace God calls all to the highest attainments. 
The dream which was started, that somehow there 
was an obligation put upon me to be something, I 
very naturally conceived would receive its truest 
realization in the vocation of him whose name I bore. 

"Pardon this digression. It is hard for us 
Methodists to talk without bringing in a little bit 
of personal experience. Then, too, after the di- 
vision, as a boy preacher on the border, in Vir- 
ginia, I fought you. That is, I defended my 
Church by doing the work of an evangelist and 
building it up, all the harder, because the South- 
ern preachers were around. I thought and felt 
then that these Southern brethren were splendid 
fellows, and how I would love them if they would 
only keep on their own side and let my territory 
and people alone; and I could see the need of but 
one Methodism, especially as fat and flourishing as 
it was in the regions of the Shenandoah and old 
Loudoun. Ah, sir, those days were but as the in- 
nocent and harmless encounter of boys playing at 
fighting, compared with the dark and stormy days 
which, alas! too soon came upon us. The war- 
cloud passed over us, with its battles of fire and 
hail, sweeping down in its terrible course hundreds 



232 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



and thousands of the vigorous men and valiant 
youths of both sections of our common country. 
In the strife, the Methodists North and South, 
East and West, true to the instinctive earnestness 
characteristic of their religion, did their utmost in 
deadly array. With tongue, and pen, and sword 
on either side, they contested every inch of ground 
and every title of principle and law.* But the war 
over, the bow of peace once again spanned the 
dark cloud as it receded. Happily for us, the 
brave men who fell in blood were not all that fell — 
slavery, the source of our discord also fell and 
was buried; and not only 5,000,000 of slaves rose 
into liberty, but the nation, and no portion of it 
more than the Southern, rose into freedom and 
was delivered from the most difficult social, moral, 
and political problem which ever perplexed states- 
men or burdened the consciences of good men. 

"From the hour when national peace was 
established and the broad and equal guardianship 
of the Union was again thrown over all the States 
and Territories of our country, there has been a 

*The author believes the Methodists did more than their 
proportion of the fighting, in both armies, in the war. In 
"Cyclopedia of Methodism," p. 553: "It has been estimated 
that it (Methodist Episcopal Church) gave from its own 
communion and congregations to fill up the ranks of the 
soldiery not less than 300,000 men." Bishop McTyeire, in 
his " History," p. 664: " The war between the States affected, 
more or less damagingly, all religious interests. In each end 
of the Union, the largest popular element was represented 
by Methodism, and naturally each section of the Church was 
in sympathy with its own people." 



SOME GOOD READING. 233 

growing desire among Methodists North and South 
that the old bonds of a former love and amity shoidd 
be reasserted. There has been an effort to forgive 
and to forget the differences of the past, and indeed 
to overlook as far as possible the things in which 
we yet differ, and to draw closer together on the 
ground in which we agree, and where we can 
stand and act as brethren. I need not rehearse 
the successive steps by which we have been ap- 
proaching each other. The fraternal salutations 
exchanged through official representatives in both 
our General Conferences; the devout, spiritual re- 
unions at Round Lake and other camp-meetings; 
the legal settlement of the Cape May Commission, 
duly ratified by our General Conference at Cincinnati; 
and, finally, the moral influence of the grand Ecu- 
menical Council in London ; these, the more 
marked and formal agencies, to say nothing of the 
less conspicuous and silent, but not the less effici- 
ent, processes of individual, social, and commercial 
intercourse, have been carrying forward the work 
of healing and reconciliation, until we feel that we 
are really very near to each other, and that there 
are more tilings in which we agree than those in which 
we differ, and that those things in which we agree 
are far more important than those in which we 
differ. 

...«.» 

" I doubt if there has been as much vital union 

and sweetness among the two great Methodist 

bodies in America since 1836. 

"But as I stand before you with a message of 

20 



234 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

love and peace, I am bound to rejoice with you in 
the rich heritage which you possess in common 
with ourselves as Episcopal Methodists. Our gen- 
esis is the same. * Whose are the fathers?' The 
memory of the men who founded Methodism in the 
New World is yours as well as ours. Their work 
is at the foundation and in the superstructure of 
your Church; their history is in your books; they 
live in your hearts. Like the odor of sweet oint- 
ment poured forth, their names everywhere pene- 
trate the atmosphere North, South, East, and 
West, and the perfume that they exhale can not 
be confined to any section of the country or branch 
of their successors. 

• ••••• 

" Mr. Chairman, as I talk on and feel the memo- 
ries of our primitive past stealing upon me and 
think of the days when we were all one ; as I feel 
the memories of this later charity which, like the 
rising tide, is sweeping in upon us, I not only re- 
joice in the fraternization, true and heartfelt, which 
we this day realize, as in the name of bishops, 
16,000 ministers, traveling and local, well-nigh 
2,000,000 members and 1,500,000 children and 
youth, I shake hands with you and the hundreds 
of thousands who stand around you, but I devoutly 
pray that we may be draw7tyet closer and closer together, 
until differences shall vanish, in the beautiful oneness 
of American Methodism. There is a word I would 
like to speak, but perhaps I dare not. My Church 
has not authorized me to speak it. You, my hosts, 
may not be ready for it, and I must not violate 



SOME GOOD READING. 



235 



your hospitality. It is not a big word, nor a long 
one, but my heart is full of it. Time will bring it. 
There are some things which can not well be hur- 
ried, and this is one of them. But this question 
of the Organic Union of Episcopal Methodism, 
to say nothing of other forms of Methodism on 
our continent, is one which some men are thinking 
about and strongly desiring. There are some sub- 
jects, says Goethe, which, though they are not 
definitely formulated, do yet, like the sound of 
bells, get all abroad on the air. A layman octoge- 
narian, away down in Maine, born, by the way, in 
the same township as your venerated Bishop Soule, 
wrote me a short time since, ' We want here or- 
ganic union.' Another octogenarian, a layman of 
Cincinnati, eminent for his intelligence, and piety, 
and liberality, said to me just before I left home, 
4 We want it ; there is no reason why it should not be. 9 
These old men may be too far ahead of their times. 
But like God's great seers standing on the moun- 
tain peaks which kiss the skies, they catch the very 
first streaks of the dawning new light which is rising, 
and destined to shine athwart our whole Church, 
North, South, East, and West. If reunion is right 
and for the glory of God, it will come ; if not, may 
Heaven put it forever away! For my own part, 
I dare not oppose, I can not be indifferent to it ; 
I must pray and hope for its consummation, because I 
believe it will be for the glory of God, the good of the 
whole people, and the stability of our Republic. There 
is no bond like the religious bond, to cement and 
compact the communities of a country into solid 



236 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



strength. But I am willing to wait God's time. 
When a little boy I often tried to knock apples 
from the trees before they were ripe ; but as I grew 
older I found after they were ripe they would either 
fall of themselves, or needed only a gentle shake. 

* * We need a little more love. We need baptism 
after baptism of the Spirit, the fire that melts, dis- 
solves the souls of the people into one free-moving 
stream of love. . . . May God speed the day f 

[Some men try to live up to their convic- 
tions ; believing in Christian fellowship, they 
practice the same. Reader, are you one of 
these ?] 



A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS. 

There came a messenger with papers in 
his hand — some printed, and others written 
with ink and pen. I had never seen him 
before, and, after five minutes, I never saw 
him more. His form was bent under the 
weight of years ; his hair and beard long 
and white ; his appearance like unto one of 
the Hebrew prophets of old ; his manner 
kind ; his words few, but warm for peace and 
union of the Churches. His papers were 
given as furnishing materials for my book ; 
showing how in old colonial days there were 
two parties, one introducing slaves, the other 
seeking to set them free ; showing how the 



A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS. 237 

preaching of a pure Gospel caused masters 
to free their slaves before death or by will 
and testament ; and how slavery became 
unprofitable and obnoxious North, and prof- 
itable and popular South ; and how the 
Southern Methodists were driven to form a 
Church of their own ; and how the bloody 
war came and closed ; and how the bloody 
chasm that was, ceased to be ; and how the 
old issues are dead ; and how good feelings 
had been restored by trade and travel ; and 
how there is now a oneness in language and 
civilization and interest, North and South ; and 
how there is such a prospective greatness 
and glory in store for the American Union ; 
then he asks why have two Churches of one 
faith and polity covering the same land — 
both preaching the pure Gospel, both building 
temples of worship and founding schools and 
spreading a wholesome literature and trying 
to elevate and bless mankind ; and he shows 
that in hopes and aims and interests the 
two Churches are one ; and he demands why 
these bickerings, rivalries, jealousies, evil- 
speakings and divisions, instead of one un- 
broken phalanx marching against intemper- 
ance, infidelity, ignorance, and sin of every 
form, till there breaks forth the shout of 
triumph — the song of jubilee ! Looking 



233 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



ahead he seems to espy a reunited Meth- 
odism, and hopes to live to participate in 
such a glorious consummation, and see it 
celebrated with grand outward ceremony or 
display like David had arranged for bringing 
up the Ark to Jerusalem of old ; and he 
wants this to take place at the center of the 
New South, at battle-scarred and mountain- 
walled Chattanooga, upon a lofty peak now 
being approached by the ascending railroad, 
where a battle was fought above the clouds — 
there on the point from which a beholder 
looks out upon five great States — there he 
proposes a great white cross of a size and 
finish never before seen on earth, and on the 
top of that cross, a white dove of peace, in 
whose beak an olive branch shall be, while 
all around that cross shall gather the Meth- 
odist people, and a bishop from the South 
and another from the North to conduct a 
united service of praise, and bands of singers 
and bands with instruments to swell the lays 
such as were heard when the morning stars 
sang together and all the sons of God 
shouted for joy — the grandest jubilee that 
ever blessed the earth or gladdened heaven ! 

Such the materials the aged seer fur- 
nished me to put into this book. Reader, 
what would you have done with them ? 



JUDAH VEXING EPHRAIM. 



239 



JUDAH VEXING EPHRAIM. 

Sometimes when evidence has been intro- 
duced in court to prove one point, the same 
evidence is found to have an important bear- 
ing upon something else. When thus used 
it is called indirect testimony, and is held by 
logicians as even better than that which is 
professedly given as direct. 

Lately, and for a long time back, much 
has been said about changing the name 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
Some of these sayings on a change of name 
bear indirectly, but very strongly, upon a 
change of policy, and, in this view of the 
case, we give a few extracts. First from 
Dr. Kelley, in the Advocate of Missions : 

"The gravity of the change of name, as we 
see it, is very great. To us it so involves the 
question of autonomy that, should the next Gen- 
eral' Conference close, leaving the word South as an 
appendix to our name, it will leave the conviction 
that Providence does not intend our perpetuity as 
a separate Church. . . . For years it has been 
my business to read more letters, and examine 
critically more reports, and to weigh more reasons 
for success or failure, as pointed out by the men 
in the Western field, than has fallen to the lot of any 
other one man. I feel, therefore, bound in duty to 



1 



240 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



the Church to give the conclusions at which I have 
arrived. 

4 4 It is not known to most of our readers that 
in many of our Churches in the West we are de- 
pendent on members who were born and reared in 
the North. . . . Again, our own children, 
after mingling with the children about them, and 
especially intermarrying with those of other sec- 
tions, prefer to have no questions raised such as 
the word South perpetually brings to the front. 

4 'There are no men on earth so skilled in the 
history and defense of our name as our Western 
preachers, but even they fail to satisfy a people 
who have no care for, or an aversion to our past 
history. 

"Our opponents say it has a political signifi- 
cation — we deny ; then our Western friends ask 
why, if it has lost its geographical significance, 
and has no political meaning, do you retain it? 
Our preachers satisfy one man and offend many by 
their explanations. 

"I am not ashamed of our name nor of our 
history truthfully written — but our business is to 
send the Gospel to the world ; if a name hinders, 
let us lay aside every weight. 

M In a conversation yesterday with a leading man 
in our Israel ... he replied very quickly, 
4 That may lead but the sooner to the three Gen- 
eral Conferences which are, eventually, to embrace 
the whole American Methodism, and ought to do 
so.' This was, to my mind, a flash of light from 
a direction little expected. 



JUDAH VEXING EPHRAIM. 



241 



"When we said calmly, last month, what duty- 
demanded at our hands, we did not suspect any 
such flank movement as this. . . . You would 
load us with a name we can not carry \ until, in our 
extremity, we submit to terms we would not now 
dream of. (Italics his). 

"Writers say, we have done well with our 
name. Yes! but, brother, stop and think a mo- 
ment ; we have done well in localities where we 
were the only Methodism, and where name has not 
counted one feather's weight. One thing it was 
not wanted to print, but you drive me to it, viz. : 
We have relatively lost ground from Baltimore to 
the Pacific steadily and persistently for the last 
fifteen years. 

"To sum up: No Christian element is lost to 
us in the change. We love the old word, but it 
hinders the work of Christ. 1 He that loveth father 
or mother more than me, is not worthy of me.' 
Shall we prove ourselves worthy of the great love 
wherewith he hath loved us?" 

So far, Brother Kelley, the missionary sec- 
retary, who introduces a witness in favor of 
his measure, a change of name. His witness 
is Judge William Holmes, Kansas City, Mis- 
souri, fbr^years a member of the Missouri 
Conference, "a lawyer of astuteness and 
great influence' 9 in the West, a staunch 
Southern Methodist "of long experience and 
large success in practical affairs, a man of 



242 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



calm judicial mind." He writes under date 
July 4 > 1885: 

"Rev. D. C. Kelley, D. D.,— Dear Brother: 
I do not know how I could perform a more pa- 
triotic duty than to present some facts to you on 
change of name, as I firmly believe. It is life or 
death to us as a Church; the first, if we reach a 
conclusion to change our name ; and the latter, if 
we fail. I am aware this is putting it strongly, but 
facts, the following, I can vouch for and can prove, 
will demonstrate its truth. 

"That we have had some positive success, is 
true ; that we have about doubled our membership 
in half a generation, is true. But have we suc- 
ceeded relatively to increase of population ? Have 
we increased relatively with the increase of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in territory where we, 
in 1865, held the whole ground? I can only answer 
for Missouri, where I have lived and labored for over 
forty years ; and I now propose to present facts 
and figures that I can prove. In the whole State 
of Missouri our Church stood foremost among all 
the Protestant Churches. We had the wealth, 
social position, church-houses, and occupying the 
whole territory as a regularly organized Church. 
Below I run over a large part of our territory, and 
take the cities and towns — centers of population. 
I will commence in the Missouri Conference, em- 
bracing all the territory on the north side of the 
Missouri River. Hannibal Methodist Episcopal 
Church and ours about equal in numbers and 



JUDAH VEXING EPHRAIM. 



243 



wealth; population, 20,000. Palmyra, we are 
stronger. Macon City, crossing of the Hannibal and 
St. Joseph Railroad, and North Missouri Railroad, 
population 6,000, Methodist Episcopal Church 
stronger. Brookfield, population 6,000, Methodist 
Episcopal Church, good church building and strong 
membership ; we have nothing. Chillicothe, popu- 
lation 8,000; about equal. Hamilton, population 
2,000, Methodist Episcopal Church, good station ; 
we have nothing. Cameron, population 4,000, 
Methodist Episcopal Church strong ; we have 
nothing. All these points are centers of popula- 
tion on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. 
County-seat of Andrew and DeKalb, we have 
nothing in the latter, and a weak society in the 
former. Maryville, population 6,000, Methodist 
Episcopal Church strong ; we have a sickly organ- 
ization in the throes of death; and all the towns on 
the Council Bluff Railroad about the same, except 
St. Joseph. Take the whole of the Missouri Con- 
ference, and we have hardly held our own people ; 
meaning by this the people of Southern birth and 
training, while the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
twenty years have equaled us in numbers, and hold 
the centers. I did not name Kirksville, seat of the 
State Normal School — Methodist Episcopal Church 
strong; we are almost nothing. 

M It does not require much figuring or logic to 
tell where we will be the next twenty years. We 
shall be so attenuated, we shall fail to find any so- 
ciety. I spent eleven years in the itinerancy in that 
conference from 1842 to 1853. I know all about it. 



244 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



"I will now come to our own conference — 
Southwest Missouri Conference — and follow the 
centers of population. Jefferson City, we occupy 
the field; but the Methodist Episcopal Church all 
the towns adjacent thereto. Next principal point 
on the Missouri Pacific Railroad is Sedalia— popu- 
lation, 20,000 ; Methodist Episcopal Church have 
two strong charges ; we have a feeble one. War- 
rensburg, next point, population 6,000; Methodist 
Episcopal Church strong ; we are weak — been mis- 
sionary work all the while. Holden, population 
2,500; Methodist Episcopal Church strong; we 
have nothing. Lee's Summit, population 1,200; 
about equal. I learn from Brother Hawkins, Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church have a station and a circuit. 
Independence, an old Southern town, about equal. 
Towns on Kansas City and Springfield Railroad : 
Lamar, county-seat, population 4,000; Methodist 
Episcopal Church strong ; we have nothing. Spring- 
field, an old Southern town, population 15,000; 
Methodist Episcopal Church two strong charges ; 
we have one. In all the towns between that and 
western line of State of Missouri, we are struggling 
for breath, where once we had the ground and the 
people. Lebanon, chief town in southeast part of 
our conference, Methodist Episcopal Church strong; 
we have a small membership, and are struggling 
for a place. Butler, county-seat of Bates County, 
Methodist Episcopal Church strong ; we are strug- 
gling. Clinton, county-seat of Henry, Methodist 
Episcopal Church strong ; we are spending mission- 
ary money, and one of our best men, to gain a 



JUDAH VEXING EPHRAIM. 



245 



foot-hold. It is true, we hold the balance of power 
in some of the old towns, such as Booneville, 
Lexington, and Glasgow. All those towns are de- 
cayed towns, not as large as they were thirty years 
ago. 

' 1 Now I come to Kansas City, that has grown 
up under my own eye ; and I took charge of our 
Church here in 1862, when all our preachers had to 
fly, and tided it over a sea of difficulty. Up to 
about 1879, fi ve y ears a g°> some of our preachers, 
unfortunately for the interest of our Church, seemed 
to believe, from their actions, that their mission was 
to our people. By that was meant Southern people. 
Good men and true, but they not only did not seek 
Northern people, but repelled them. The result 
up to 1879, we one church building, one organ- 
ized society, and a membership of not over two 
hundred and fifty. The Methodist Episcopal 
Church at that time had three church-buildings and 
same number of organized societies. What their 
membership was I am not able to say definitely, 
but I should not put it lower than nine hundred in 
1879. Some six laymen, including myself, came 
to the conclusion that we must take a new depart- 
ure or perish. We bought a church-building and 
lot, and another lot on which to build. Dr. Mathews, 
Brother Lawrence, and Brother Hawkins came 
to us ; the two former from the extreme South, and 
Brother Hawkins a native Missourian. But, thank 
God, they were men whose mission was to sinners; 
* Where there was neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, 
Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ in all.' We 



246 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



did not put up South over our Churches. We met 
all men on the basis of equality before our great 
Master, Christ. Honor all men, love God, and 
loyalty to constituted authorities, knowing no man 
after the flesh. 

" We have now five good church-buildings, and 
five well-organized Church societies, with a mem- 
bership of not less than 1,200 to 1,400. Fully 
one-half of our membership are Northern people. 
They prefer us simply on two grounds: first, our 
social position ; second, our freedom from civil and 
worldly policies. 

"I can say truthfully, our Northern members 
are as zealous, devoted men and women as we 
have. The old question of North and South is never 
heard of among us. We are reduced to one of two 
dilemmas — either drop suffix 4 South * and take a 
new departure, or absorption is inevitable. 

"Look at Kansas. We once occupied it wholly; 
being Indian country, our missionaries occupied it. 
Now the Methodist Episcopal Church have four 
conferences in the State with a membership of 
nearly 100,000; our membership not over 2,000. 
Look at Montana in 1865; our people there were 
mainly from Missouri, with some half a dozen of 
our ministers. How is it now ? Helena, we have 
a good church-building and parsonage locked up — 
no minister, population 10,000. Butte City, popu- 
lation 10,000, a few of our people associated ; no 
minister, and so of nearly all the strong centers 
there. I do not state it too strongly when I say, 
in Kansas we have not gathered in one-tenth of our 



JUDAH VEXING EPHRAIM. 



247 



people; I mean Southern people. Nine-tenths of 
them have gone into the other Church. I am safe 
in saying that one-fourth of the membership in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Missouri are from 
our own fold. " 

All this can be avoided by a reunion of 
the old Methodist Episcopal Church. 

I copy from Advocate of Missions the 
following communication on the change of 
name : 

"I have read with interest your Symposiac in 
last Advocate of Missions. 

'•The inevitable is upon us — a reunion of the 
two Methodisms. 4 It maybe far, it may be near/ 
They are complements of each other — each will be 
made better by the union. The question for us is 
the manner of procedure — by absorption, or by 
commission, after the manner of the Cape May 
settlement. I prefer the latter method — a right- 
eous settlement of the matters involved. 

"The altar- against-altar policy is abhorrent to 
me. Such have been my sentiments for nearly a 
score of years. I shall vote against the proposed 
change of name, believing it would be detrimental 
to our Church, and also in the way of our honor- 
able reunion with the other branch of Episcopal 
Methodism. But I beg pardon for this obtrusion 
of my opinions upon your attention. B.* M 



*J. H. Brunner. 



248 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Upon this communication the editor com- 
mented as follows : 

"This letter is printed in confirmation of what 
we said about the flank movement last month. 
Those who are against change are most for union. 
A preacher has just left our side who reports a con- 
versation with an editor of a Methodist Episcopal 
Church journal, who seemed wonderfully gratified 
when our brother assured him that there was not 
the least probability that 44 South " would be 
dropped. Our brother could not understand why 
he was gratified. We know it was because he saw, 
as many of us do not, the help which would come 
to us by unloading, and the prospect of surrender 
which our false position, as he believed, would soon 
necessitate." 

Another witness says : 

"Our recent conference at Greenville was about 
as conferences usually are, spiced this session by 
election of delegates to the General Conference 
and with the question of change of name. After 
an unanimous vote against the proposed change I 
offered a resolution that the conference memorialize 
the General Conference to change, by its own 
authority, the name to that which in 1866 met 
with such uniform favor, namely, Episcopal Meth- 
odist Church. The resolution met with less favor 
in the vote than in expression, conversationally, in 
private, among the brethren. Some, who are by 
no means obscure or uninfluential, have said to me 
since that they prefer the name Episcopal Meth- 



BISHOP FOSTER'S SERMON. 



249 



odist to the one we have, but that they hope for 
an organic reunion between the Churches North 
and South at no distant day, and that a change of 
our name now might impede that. So the signifi- 
cance of this adherence to our caudal elongation 
is not altogether as some suppose. " — Dr, Cottrell, 
of the Louisville Conference, 1885. 

Rev. J. M. Gross, presiding elder of At- 
chison District, writing from Kansas, Dec. 
15, 1885, says in Ho Is ton Methodist : 

"How much we need more men in the 
West! . . . Why will so -many young men in 
the older conferences stay there? . . . Possibly 
some of our brethren in the extreme South do not 
see the importance of establishing ourselves in the 
West. We can't live as a Church and have the 
power that a Church ought to have, without the 
West. . . *. I am satisfied that if the suffix 
South were eliminated, it would be a great advant- 
age to our Church in the West and North- 
west. . . . It is a detriment to us. . . . 



BISHOP FOSTER'S SERMON. 

Bishop Foster's sermon at the Centen- 
nial Conference at Baltimore, 1884, was very- 
long and its merits were even greater than 
its length ! We regret we have not space 
for it entire. Bishop Pierce had been ap- 
pointed to preach the sermon, with Bishop 



250 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Simpson as his alternate. Both had died. 
They had run parallel lives — born the same 
year ; converted about the same time ; Peirce 
studied law, and Simpson medicine; each 
called to the ministry about the same time ; 
at the division of the Church, Simpson be- 
came a leader North, and Pierce in the 
South ; both made bishops about the same 
period ; each at the head of his Methodism, 
they died within a few days of each other, 
and entered upon eternal joys together. How 
beautifully does Bishop Foster touch upon 
the lives of these leaders, in the introduction 
of his discourse ! 

We sample his sermon : 

"Founded on the imperishable rock of eternal 
truth, the Church of God will abide forever — the 
gates of hell can never prevail against it. Nothing 
of the future is more certain than this. But indi- 
vidual Churches have no such promise. More or less 
they are imperfect and human, and so far forth they 
have inherent the condition of failure. . . . The 
law of life is growth. No concrete form of Church 
organization is divine — absolutely so. 
The ultra-conservative sees only destruction in 
every proposed change, it matters nothing how 
trivial. . . . The rash, impatient radical, on 
the other hand, would peril the life of the 
cause ... by the undiscerning rigor of his 
reform. . . . The highest wisdom is to strike 



BISHOP FOSTER'S SERMON. 



251 



and hold the progressive medium. . . . The 
absolute condition of permanence in any Church 
is a substantially true creed. ... It is its 
sheet anchor, its foundation, its life-blood, its very 
soul. . . . The final creed, to which all will 
come, when one by one false systems and inade- 
quate interpretations have been displaced, will be 
4 the truth as it is in Jesus !' . . . Our creed is 
still our joy. . . . Christendom grows towards 
it, not from it. It has molded the evangelical 
thought of the age. ... Its once rejected 
and denounced doctrines are now preached in all 
pulpits. . . . We are not gathered here to 
revise a single doctrine of it. With perfect confi- 
dence we write it on our banners, and float them 
in the open heaven. Every article which our 
fathers handed to us, we transmit to our children ; 
of the treasure they gave us we have lost nothing : 
One God in three co-eternal persons; one incarna- 
tion of God in the second person of the ever blessed 
Trinity, the redeemer and savior of men; one Holy 
Ghost, the third person of the God-head, ever 
present on earth, the renewer and sanctifier of peni- 
tent souls; one Bible whole and entire, a revelation 
of God's will to his human children ; man a fallen 
being and an active sinner, needing salvation ; one 
all-sufficient atonement, by which any and every 
man may obtain pardon and utmost salvation on 
the same terms; man immortal and responsible; 
the resurrection of the dead ; an eternal final judg- 
ment; an eternal heaven for all regenerate souls, 
and an eternal hell for all impenitent sinners, — these 



252 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES, 



are the great fundamentals of our creed, which, 
interpreted by intelligence, not by ignorance, we 
continue to offer to the world for its faith. . . 
Here we stand. . . v . 

The old Methodist renown of all at it, and always at 
it — needs to be restored to its ancient luster. Chief 
men, and chief women, the opening century calls 
for you, and calls to the front. All your powers of 
brain and heart, of personal and property influence, 
of vigilant and persistent endeavor, by consecration 
and prayer and exhortation ; all is needed for the 
hour that has come upon the world. Know that 
the mighty battle is set. . . . The great forces 
are in field. . . . Legions of Methodism, to 
the front ; it is the battle of destiny ; it is the de- 
cisive hour ; the Great Captain, on his thigh Lord 
of lords and King of kings, commands in per- 
son this day. . . . The Church of to-day, 
much more the Church of the future, must take 
to its heart the duty of combining and massing its 
forces against that gigantic . . . monstmm hor- 
rendum . . . that mothers nine-tenths of the 
w r oes and sorrows which blight and curse our age — 
the traffic in intoxicants — which hides its deformity 
under the garb of law ! How long shall our faces 
blister with this worse than pagan shame? . 
The Church has but just one work. . . . Its 
function is to build up and perpetuate a divine and 
holy commonwealth. Men are perishing in sin and 
ignorance. Its work is to save them. ... Its 
very genius and law is self-sacrifice. . . . She 
will make a great future for humanity. . . , 



A UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. 253 



She inherits the ages ; her days are the days of 
man. . . . The world waits expectant its con- 
quering King ; the echo of his steps is heard among 
the nations ; our ranks need to be in 

marching order, to welcome him ; close tip, close 
up — let every banner be unfurled — every soldier at 
his post. . . . Blessings on all the tribes of 
our Israel — blessings of the heavens and blessings 
of the earth — blessings of the Lord. " 



A UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. 

In the troublous " border work" and in 
the troublous times of 1867, this writer felt 
that there ought to be a better state of feel- 
ings between the two Methodisms. As a 
tentative effort in that direction, he sent 
to the Nashville Advocate the following 
paper : 

-A. UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. 
By the Rev. J. H. Brunner, A. M. 

Mr. Wesley organized his people into 11 United 
Societies." At the Christmas Conference, at Bal- 
timore, A. D. 1784, the "United Societies" in 
America were organized into the " Methodist Epis- 
copal Church." Causes of division subsequently 
arose, resulting in the formation of several Meth- 
odist communities — causes that have measurably 



254 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



ceased to exist. What a sublime spectacle to see 
all these Methodist bodies come together again ! 

To effect such a union, let there be ample time 
for deliberation, And can we not unite upon the 
following conditions ? — 

1. A General Convention to be held at Balti- 
more, Christmas, 1884 — the Centenary of our or- 
ganization in America. 

2. Each Methodist body to select its own dele- 
gates in the ratio of one delegate to every ten 
thousand members. 

3. The basis of union to be the 41 Articles of 
Religion" and "General Rules," adopted in 1784, 
and still held in common by Methodists everywhere. 

4. The name of the Church to be the "United 
Methodist Church," without any geographical or 
other restrictive term. 

5. Prudential regulations pertaining to the gov- 
ernment and polity of the Church, to be of force, 
must be adopted by a two-thirds vote of the 
convention. 

6. No Methodist body represented shall be 
bound by the action of the convention, unless the 
proceedings are signed or indorsed by two-thirds 
of its own representatives. 

7. Each worshiping congregation to regulate its 
own affairs in all matters not determined by the 
voice of the Church as expressed by General Con- 
vention or Conference. 

What hinders such a union ? The whole Chris- 
tian world would be moved by such a grand event. 
Angels and the spirits of Methodists made perfect 



A UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. 255 

would rejoice thereat, in songs not known to mor- 
tal ears. Above all, God would smile upon it, and 
crown it with his blessing. 

We live in an age of progress. Let us make 
progress in the right direction. Is it not true now, 
as it was in the days of the Incarnation, "the 
world lieth in the wicked one ?" A great work fe 
before the Church. il In union there is strength/' . 
"A house divided against itself " is not strong. 
As allies, 44 one can chase a thousand, and two put 
ten thousand to flight." Can we not consolidate ? 
Let us try. We can do much in seventeen years ! 

What say the different Methodists fraternities ? 

September, 1867. 

It was the writer's wish that no Methodist 
organization claiming lineage from the Christ- 
mas Conference of 1784 should fail to be 
represented at the grand Centennial Conven- 
tion of 1884. This was before the appear- 
ance of the Randolph circular. When the 
suggestion appeared, some mocked, while 
thoughtful minds commended. As seen else- 
where, there was a centennial hand-shaking, 
but no centennial convention to settle Meth- 
odist divisions ! The great question remains, 
Shall these divisions be left as a thorny 
heritage for our children's children ? Rather 
let the rose of Sharon bloom ! 



256 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



A CENTENNIAL VOICE. 

The pastoral address issued "to the 
Methodist People in the United States and 
Canada" by the Centennial Conference at 
Baltimore, 1884, contains some very whole- 
some doctrine. Take the following: 

"Not least among the evils we deplore as 
Methodists is the spirit of strife and division which, 
we are sorry to say, is not yet wholly eradicated 
from our Zion. Far be it from us to pronounce 
every division of the Church schismatical. There 
has been, doubtless, some providential ordering in 
the denominational organizations of Christendom, 
yet the multiplication of separate Churches on 
trivial grounds is not to be encouraged. We are 
happy to believe that the period of dissensions is 
well-nigh over. We hail the dawn of a better 
day, and rejoice in the rising spirit of fraternity 
which promises much for the success of the cause 
we love. From this time onward our principal 
rivalries should be to excel in good works. We 
congratulate our Canadian brethren upon the suc- 
cess which has attended their movement for uniting 
the forces of Methodism in the Dominion. May 
their highest anticipations be fully realized. We 
of the States may not follow their example in con- 
solidation, but we should not fall behind them in 
" endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the 
bonds of peace." 



A TOUCHING INCIDENT. 



257 



But why not the Methodists in the States 
unite as did the several Methodist Churches 
in Canada ? We ought to have as much 
common sense and as much charity as they. 



A TOUCHING INCIDENT. 

(From the Centennial Daily Advocate.) 

Without question the most thrilling incident 
of the session occurred at the close of the love- feast 
on Wednesday, the last day of the conference. 
Gen. C. B. Fisk, of New Jersey, placing himself 
inside the chancel by the side of Dr. J. B. McFer- 
rin, laid his hand lovingly on the old man's shoul- 
der. He began by describing his first interview 
with Drs. A. L. P. Green and McFerrin, when, 
soon after the war, he was in charge of the military 
district whose head-quarters were at Nashville. 
That interview was specially marked by expressions 
of anxious inquiry about the future of the two 
great Methodist bodies. Organic union was not 
spoken of, but the general could not help express- 
ing with some despondency his apprehensions 
about the future. Placing his right hand on the 
doctors head, and, with deep emotion, he added : 
44 This good man then said, 'Bless you, general, 
we will some day all sit down together in a grand 
old-fashioned love-feast/ M The scene that followed 
was indescribable. The patriarch rose to his feet, 
his eyes swimming in tears, and grasped and shook 

with fervor the hand that had been laid so tenderly 

22 



258 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



upon his head, while the vast audience were moved 
as rarely men are moved, when there followed a 
universal burst of song : 

" Together let us sweetly live, 
Together let us die, 
And each a starry crown receive, 
And reign above the sky." 

The love-feast was over ; and soon after 
the Centennial Conference adjourned sine die. 



14 LIGHTS ALONG THE SHORE." 

All hands admit that the fires on Meth- 
odist altars were derived from the altars of 
the Moravians. 

" John Huss and Jerome of Prague (martyred in 
141 5) were reformers before the Reformation. The 
latter, after leaving the University of Prague, vis- 
ited Oxford, and imbibed Wycliffe's principles while 
copying his works. ... A spark from the 
stake of Constance (Huss and Jerome) lighted up 
at last the flame of Methodism in England and 
America. " — McTyeire. 

Moravian light on doctrine was good — 
what of their light on Church polity ? 

"The formal organization of the Unitas Fra- 
trum % or Unity of the Brethren (as the Moravian 
Church calls itself), may be dated in 1467, when 
their society became an independent Church. . . . 



LIGHTS ALONG THE SHORE, 2$g 



The Unitas Fratrum was composed of three pro- 
vinces—the Moravian, the Bohemian, and the 
Polish — each governed by its own bishops and con- 
ferences, but all confederated as one Church, hold- 
ing general conferences in common." — McTyeire, 
History of Methodism, p. 109. 

Dreadful persecutions scattered the flock. 

"The Unitas Fratrum now consists of three 
provinces — the American, the Continental, and 
the British — which govern themselves in all pro- 
vincial matters, but are confederated as one Church 
in respect to general principles of doctrine and 
practice, and the prosecution of foreign missions. 
Each province has its synod. For the general 
government of the three provinces and the foreign 
missions there is a general synod, which meets 
every ten or twelve years, and to which each 

PROVINCE SENDS THE SAME NUMBER OF DELEGATES. 

The executive board of the general synod is called 
the Unity's Elders' Conference, and is the highest 
judicatory of the whole Unitas Fratrum, when that 
synod is not in session." — Appletoris Cyclopedia. 

There be those who advocate a united 
Methodism for our country, with three juris- 
dictions or provinces, a Northern, a Western, 
and a Southern, each to have its own bishops 
and local management, but the general prin- 
ciples of doctrine and practice, and the prose- 
cution of foreign missions, to be under the 
control of a General Conference to be 



260 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES, 



COMPOSED OF EQUAL DELEGATIONS FROM THE 

three provinces. Then there would be no 
longer altar against altar at home or abroad, 
and all our resources could then be economi- 
cally employed against the empire of evil. 
Reader, what of the plan ? 

If the Herrnhut Moravians, 1732, an in- 
fant community of exiles, numbering about 
six hundred members, most of them poor 
and destitute, but earnest in trying to send 
out heralds of the Gospel, could dispatch, in 
a short period of nine or ten years, their 
missionaries to Greenland, to the West In- 
dies, to Lapland, to Tartary, to Algiers, to 
Guinea, to the Cape of Good Hope, to the 
Indians of North America, and to Ceylon, 
what could not the numerous and wealthy 
United Methodists accomplish, in the present 
age, with all the marvelous appliances of our 
civilization? Does not Christ still pray that 
his disciples may be one ? 



-CHRISTIAN UNION CHURCH. " 

After the war there were spirits in 
Southern Illinois who seem to have disliked 
some utterances of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. They were not anxious just then 
to be called Southern Methodists. So they 



"CHRISTIAN UNION CHURCH." 26 1 

set up for themselves as the ' ' Christian Union 
Church. " 

On the 8th, 9th and 10th of June (1867) 
Bishops Doggett and Marvin, of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South, by previous 
request, attended a council of this new Meth- 
odist family, at Clinton, Illinois. The council 
represented some twenty-five or thirty travel- 
ing and many local preachers, and from 3,000 
to 5,000 members, and resolved to organize 
under the title of " Episcopal Methodist 
Church, " to adopt the Discipline, hymn-book 
and literature of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, and to request the Southern 
bishops to take episcopal charge of them 
until the next meeting of the General Con- 
ference of the Church, South, in May, 1870, 
there being but one dissenting voice. 

Such a movement had been provided for 
by the Southern General Conference in 1866, 
the volunteer body to "be entitled to all the 
rights, privileges, and immunities of any 
other annual conference holding connection 
with said Church. " Bishop Doggett, aided 
by Bishop Marvin, solemnly admitted the 
"Christian Union Church," alias the "Epis- 
copal Methodist Church," "into the com- 
munion and under the jurisdiction of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South," and 



262 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

set the 1 6th of October next following as 
the time for holding their first regular annual 
conference. This was accordingly held at 
Nashville, Illinois. 

It is fortunate for them that they did not 
remain a separate band. But still Methodism 
has altar against altar in Illinois. 



ALIENATIONS. 

Alas ! that history has so often to record 
the alienation of friends ! 

Even the great Luther and the sweet- 
spirited Melancthon differed as to the nature 
of the elements, after consecration, in the 
Supper. Whitefield and Wesley separated, 
and ever after walked in different paths. In 
the United States, religious sects have mul- 
tiplied. Well does the " Century" say : " The 
sin and scandal of schism, the need and the 
practicability of a more effective co-operation 
among the professed disciples of Christ are 
forcing themselves upon the consideration of 
good men as they never have done before/ 9 

Says Dr. Fitzgerald, in Nashville Christian 
Advocate, Dec. 25, 1885: 

"The old issues that divided good men in diff- 
erent sections have died natural deaths, or are 



ALIEN A TIONS. 



263 



losing most of their significance. The hand of 
God is in it; he is clearing the field for the death- 
grapple with drunkenness. It is to be a square 
fight — and by God's help a victory for humanity." 

Does the good doctor mean the " issues " 
in politics only ? Or does he include the 
issues between the Methodisms as well ? 
Come, doctor, let all bitterness be included 
in this "natural death. " Let us have unity 
for the coming "grapple," 

Reader, is there not a political catechism 
in quiet circulation in the Methodist 1 ' border 
work?" Consider the following newspaper 
article taken from the Knoxville Journal, 
January 4, 1886. It was written by a South- 
ern Methodist minister, who was born and 
educated among the Presbyterians. He has 
the courage of his convictions. Thousands 
are beginning to see with his eyes, and hear 
with his ears, and feel with his sensibility: 

THE METHODIST CHURCH. 

"In the Journal of last Friday I noticed a state- 
ment to the effect that Dr. John H. Brunner would 
in the near future place before the public a book 
which it is believed will produce a profound sensa- 
tion among the people called Methodists. If I am 
correctly informed, the book is to be a protest 
against the present divided and estranged condition 
of the two principal bodies of American Meth- 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



odism, the Methodist Episcopal Church and the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Without in- 
dorsing, the publication in advance of its issuance, 
I desire to say that the present condition of Meth- 
odism in this country is anomalous and unsatisfac- 
tory in the extreme. Slavery, the occasion if not 
the cause of the separation, was abolished a quar- 
ter of a century ago; that is history, and wise men 
will accept the inevitable; the cruel, cruel war has 
been over nearly twenty-one years, and surely it is 
time for animosities and embitterments engendered 
by it to have subsided; and they have practically 
ceased everywhere, save in the Church and among 
the members of the visible body of Christ. The 
two Methodisms have precisely the same articles 
of religion. Their Church polity is almost techni- 
cally identical, and yet the division continues, sus- 
tained, as I sincerely believe, on political grounds 
alone. We have two sets of presiding elders and 
of regular pastors, where there is no sort of neces- 
sity for but one. Where the people are really able 
to support but one, and where had we half as 
much Christian charity and magnanimity as we 
should have, there would be but one. Ninety per 
cent of the members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church are Republicans. Ninety per cent of the 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
are Democrats. When people are converted they, 
if Methodists in sentiment and Republicans in poli- 
tics, identify themselves with the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church; otherwise, they affiliate with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The minis- 



PRESBYTERIAN UNION, 26$ 

ters of the Methodist Episcopal Church are Repub- 
licans. The ministers of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, are Democrats. Of course these 
statements are intended to apply to Methodism as 
it exists in the South. The terms ' 4 rebel'' and " car- 
pet-bagger' ' are obsolete, except as they blacken 
and poison the nomenclature of American Meth- 
odism. For shame, for shame. I am not in 
favor of 4 'disintegration and absorption." I would 
not, perhaps, advocate organic union, per se y but 
it does seem that our great and wise men ought 
to be able to devise some plan by which we would 
be relieved of the necessity of erecting altar against 
altar. A good deal more religion, and a good 
deal less of party politics, would accomplish won- 
ders in the direction of unifying our American 
Methodism. The war is over; we have all done 
wrong ; let us obey the apostolic injunction and 
confess our faults one to another, and pray one 
for another. Let us forget the things which are 
behind, and reach forth unto those things which 
are before, and a better state of affairs must 
soon be the result. The two great bodies of Epis- 
copal Methodism in our own country ought to be 
united on some basis. Jno. H. Parrott. 



PRESBYTERIAN UNION. 

The Southern Christian Advocate says : 

"Another Church Union seems not very far 
distant. The Associate Reformed Synod of the 

23 



266 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

South is essentially the same in doctrine, govern- 
ment, and discipline as the United Presbyterian 
Church. The only difference between them origi- 
nally had respect to the slavery question, but this 
has practically passed away. At the meeting of 
the synod, which closed a few days ago, a delega- 
tion was present from the United Presbyterian 
General Assembly. A committee from the synod 
and this delegation presented a basis of union, 
which was adopted by an overwhelming majority. 
This will be sent to the presbyteries of the synod, 
and if adopted by them the union may be con- 
summated next year. " 

Others can unite, why not the Meth- 
odists? A brother asks : " Why are all the 
Northern Methodists for union, and most of 
the Southern Methodists against it?" Ah! 
my brother, the South has a foolish fear! 



- MINOR MATTERS. 

"At different periods in the history of Meth- 
odism a few congregations have, from time to time, 
become independent, and have assumed the Con- 
gregational form ; though usually in a few years 
they return to the parent Church, or abandon their 
organization, or become merged in the regular 
Congregationalists. There is now a small organi- 
zation in the South which has assumed the title 
of Congregational Methodist Church." — Bishop 
Simpson. 



MINOR MATTERS. 



267 



"We have long thought it a reproach . 
that the same city or town should see two congre- 
gations and two societies and two preachers, pro- 
fessing the same form of Christianity, and yet 
proclaiming themselves rivals to each other, . 
thus producing party feelings." — Mission Com- 
mittee, London. 

"The troubles growing out of the presence of 
Wesleyan (English) missionaries in Canada grew 
worse, and the bishops were empowered to send a 
delegate to confer with the British Methodists on 
the subject. John Emory accordingly visited Eng- 
land on this business, and brought it to an amicable 
issue. Lower Canada became connected with the 
English Methodists, and Upper Canada retained its 
former connection with Episcopal Methodism ; each 
body withdrawing all its preachers from the other's 
ground, and agreeing in no way to interfere there- 
with." — McTyeire, History, p. 567. 

A true Christian minister is he who brings 
joy to all Churches in the land, but most 
of all into his own. Alas ! that the coming 
of some preachers is regarded as the com- 
ing of an Ishmael gladiator, eager to go to 
strife with all who may not have learned his 
shibboleth / Men of the world do not wran- 
gle over the color of each other's eyes or 
hair, or even a defective limp or an unor- 
thodox nose ! However sensitive we may be 
as to remarks on our personal traits, we are 



268 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



ten times more sensitive to abuse for our 
religious opinions. Here all need the Golden 
Rule. 

In an account of a revival at Birmingham, 
Alabama, the Advocate of that city, says : 

"All the pastors of the Protestant Churches 
are in full sympathy with the movement and, on 
Friday night, testified before the assembled thou- 
sands [at the Sam Jones tent] their approval of 
the meetings. There sat, side by side, the pastor 
of the Presbyterian, Episcopal, Baptist, Cumber- 
land Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches — all on 
the platform, and all 'speaking in meeting. ' % 

But the Western Watchman, a paper pub- 
lished by the Catholics (^-catholics ?) of 
St. Louis, says : 

" Catholics can not take part in heretical [Prot- 
estant] services. . . . Every heretical service 
performed in this world is a sin. . . . Preach- 
ers are bad company. If you have no business 
with them, stay away from them." 

The contrast is marked, indeed. But the 
Protestants are gaining rapidly upon the Ro- 
manists, and will yet leaven the world. As 
the light spreads, bigotry recedes. Some 
Catholics are having their eyes opened to see 
the light. May the number of such rapidly 
increase. 



A WORTHY WOMAN. 



269 



A WORTHY WOMAN. 

Mrs. L. was not brought up among Meth- 
odist people. But while on a visit to her 
aunt's she attended their meetings, imbibed 
their doctrines and partook of their expe- 
rience. As her father and mother at first 
opposed her becoming a member of the 
Church, she waited and prayed. God gave 
her both father and mother to go with her 
into the Church of her choice. 

Soon after this she married a well-to-do 
farmer, a member of the Presbyterian Church, 
whose pious mother had lately gone to join 
the angels. If this young husband had a 
weakness it was this, that he might wear 
home-made clothing, fabricated from the wool 
of his own flock. Mrs. L. entered heartily 
into his scheme, and with her own fair hands 
"dyed the material in the wool.'- Of course, 
her hands were colored, too; but time would 
soon bring them right again. The next 
week, however, was quarterly-meeting, with 
the sacrament on Sunday. To go to the 
Lord's-table with discolored hands would 
not displease Him who knoweth all things; 
but it might offend the taste of her neigh- 
bors. To avoid this she wore gloves — the 



270 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

same in which she had been married some 
weeks before. 

But a little-minded man ministered at the 
altar that day — one who, 4 4 as a matter of 
conscience, " could not give u the emblems 
of the broken body and shed blood " into 
gloved hands! So he refused her the sac- 
rament ! 

Had she been little-souled, also, there 
might have been trouble. As it was, she 
had done her duty, felt comforted, and left 
results to God. She begged her husband 
and father to take no notice of the seeming 
slight put upon her by the preacher. Soon 
the affair passed from the minds of the 
people. There was no schism in that society. 

Years passed, and the preacher grew in 
wisdom and in grace. A letter came, post- 
marked in a distant State, but making humble 
confession and asking pardon for " having in 
over-much zeal withheld the sacrament from 
one to whom his Lord would lovingly have 
given the bread and the cup, had he been 
there dispensing his own supper." A cheery 
note went back, closing with the remark: 
" I always knew the Master would not have 
refused me the emblems of his love, for he 
filled me then and there with love to him 
and all mankind." 



A WORTHY WOMAN. 



271 



" Charity never faileth." 

This good woman lives on 4 1 Thanksgiving 
Street." There be those who live else- 
where. Says a poet : — 

WHKRK DO YOU LIVE ? 

I knew a man and his name was Horner, 
Who used to live on Grumble Corner — 
Grumble Corner, in Cross-patch town, 
And he never was seen without a frown; 
He grumbled at this, he grumbled at that, 
He grumbled at the dog, he grumbled at the cat; 
He grumbled at morning, he grumbled at night, 
And to grumble and growl where his chief delight. 

He grumbled so much at his wife, that she 

Began to grumble as well as he ; 

And the children wherever they went, 

Reflected their parents* discontent. 

If the sky was dark and looked like rain, 

Then Mr. Horner was sure to complain; 

And if there was not a cloud about, 

He 'd grumble because of a threatened drought. 

His meals were never to suit his taste ; 
He grumbled- at having to eat in haste ; 
The bread was poor or the meat was tough, 
Or else he had n't had half enough; 
No matter how hard the wife might try 
To please her husband, with scornful eye 
He' d look around, and then with a scowl, 
At something or other begin to growl. 

One day as I loitered along the street, 

My old, old acquaintance I chanced to meet, 



272 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Whose face was without the look of care, 
And the ugly frown that he used to wear, 
"I may be mistaken, perhaps," I said, 
As, after saluting, I turned my head; 
' ' But it is, and it is n't Mr. Horner, 
Who lived for so long on Grumble Corner." 

I met him next day, and I met him again, 

In melting weather in pouring rain, 

When stocks were up and when stocks were down, 

But a smile, somehow, had replaced the frown; 

It puzzled me much ; and so one day, 

I seized his hand in a friendly way, 

And, "Mr. Horner, I'd like to know, 

What can have happened to change you so?" 

He laughed a laugh that was good to hear, 
For it told at once of a conscience clear; 
And he said, with none of the old-time drawl, 
"Why, I've changed my residence, that is all!" 
"Changed your residence?" " Yes," said Horner, 
" It was n't healthy on Grumble Corner, 
And so I moved : 't was a change complete ; 
And you '11 find me now on Thanksgiving Street." 

Now every day as I move along 

The streets, so filled with the busy throng, 

I watch each face, and can always tell, 

Where men and women and children dwell ; 

And many a discontented mourner, 

Is spending his days on Grumble Corner, 

Sour and sad, whom I long entreat, 

To take a house on Thanksgiving Street. 

— Independent. 

Schismatics all live on Grumble Street ! 
Not one ever started on a schismatic tour 



CANADIAN METHODISM. 



273 



from any other place. "Bear and forbear," 
is a lesson hard for them to learn. 



CANADIAN METHODISM. 

"That portion of America which the people of 
the United States habitually think of as contracted 
and cold is indeed the shoulders of the continent — 
its broadest part. It is not only fertile in its soil 
and bracing in its climate, but nourishes one of 
the most spiritual, cultivated and aggressive forms 
of Methodism in the world. In their institutions 
of learning, their tasteful, commodious churches, 
their missionary offerings, their earnest piety, and 
their exemplifications of the modes as well as the 
spirit of Wesleyanism, they fall behind none. After 
several adjustments and forms in Church organiza- 
tion, Canadian Methodism, in the centennial year, 
(1884) presents itself as one compact body. Until 
1874, there were five bodies of Methodists : the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, the Primitive Meth- 
odists, the Bible Christian Methodists, the New 
Connection Methodists, and the Wesleyan Meth- 
odists. In 1874, the New Connection Methodists 
and the Methodists of the Wesleyan Church were 
united, and in 1883 the remaining bodies were joined 
together, and now these five, with a membership 
aggregating nearly two hundred thousand, make 
one common Methodism in the Dominion of Can- 
ada. " — McTyeire s History of Methodism, pp. 334-5. 

Glory to God ! 



274 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

This we understand to be a true union : 
that is, each body makes concessions and 
receives advantages without being absorbed 
and then ignored — a quintuple compound, 
having properties not fully found in any one 
of the bodies separately — as "one of the 
most spiritual, cultivated, and aggressive 
forms of Methodism in the world," Bishop 
McTyeire himself being judge. 



THREE MAY BE ONE. 

The old text-books and masters all taught 
that a beam of pure sunshine might be sepa- 
rated by the prism into " seven primary col- 
ors." These were enumerated "red, orange, 
yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet." But this 
writer, in making experiments, found but 
three primary colors — red, yellow, and blue — 
and that a painter furnished with these three 
could compound the others ; indeed, could 
imitate all the colors found in the variegated 
fields of nature ! Preparing to publish his 
discovery, he found that he had been pre- 
ceded in this research by Dr. Brewster, of 
Edinburgh. 

Pure sunlight contains the three primary 
colors; and, as a consequence, it contains all 
the colors found in nature. 



THREE MAY BE ONE. 



275 



In like manner, the author has discovered 
that pure Bible-light has in itself three ele- 
mentary creeds, and that all the creeds of 
Christendom are but combinations of these 
three.* And we shall represent these three 
elementary creeds of Christendom by the 
three elementary natural colors, red, yellow, 
and blue. Now take three plates of colored 
glass, each one representing a primary color. 
Look through the red one ; all nature is (or 
appears to be) red. Looking through the 
yellow, things wear a different hue. Now 
try the blue plate ; there is a corresponding 
change in the appearance of things. Now 
combine any two of the plates ; another 
change follows. Combine all three ; a still 
different appearance of objects follows. Vary 
the thickness of the plates ; then take others 
of paler or deeper tint, and you have as end- 
less a combination as is presented in the 
kaleidoscope, or in all the landscapes of all 
the zones and seasons. Still there were but 
three elementary colors, as found in the pure 
sunshine ! No marvel, then, that we find 
various religious beliefs — modifications of the 

* " There are three colors in the rainbow — red, yellow, 
and blue — typing the three persons in the Godhead. These 
three appear as seven — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, 
indigo, violet — typing the seven manifestations of God's 
glory." — Munsey's Sermons, p. 180. 



276 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

three elementary creeds, as contained in pure 
Bible truth. 

We symbolize them as follows : 

1 . Red — Evangelism. 

2. Yellow — Ritualism. 

3. Blue — Calvinism. 

In Evangelism we hear much of " glad 
tidings of great joy." Conditioned on faith 
and good works we have Methodism. Un- 
conditioned, Universalism. Other modifica- 
tions, ad libitum. 

In Ritualism man placates Deity by deeds, 
observing rites, customs, traditions ; giving 
off Romanism, high and low-churchism, Bap- 
tist land-markism, pilgrimages, the crusades, 
etc., ad infinitum. 

In Calvinism, Christ's righteousness ap- 
plied by divine sovereignty ; unconditioned, 
antinomianism ; conditioned, PresbyteriaCnism ; 
semi-election, Cumberlandism ; quasi-e\ecX\on, 
Whitefieldianism — ad gustum. 

Combining two, or all three, you have the 
varied sects of Christendom. Each has 
Bible truth — just as every visible object has 
light ! But has any one sect the whole truth? 
Has any one nothing but the truth? The 
Lord knoweth. " His mercy endureth for- 
ever/' "In every nation, he that feareth 
God and worketh righteousness is accepted 



THREE MAY BE ONE, 



277 



of him." "Who art thou that judgest an- 
other man's servant ? To his own master he 
standeth or falleth." Men differ in logic, 
but agree in love. "Glad tidings" "good 
works" and " by grace ye are saved" are all 
in the Bible-light ere separated by the prism 
of the human mind. 

Enlarged charity for all Christians is our 
duty ; and ought there not to be special 
charity in the Methodist family who have like 
precious faith and walk by the same rule? 
Get these Methodists into ecumenical or cen- 
tennial love-feasts, and they are one ! As in 
dogmas there are three systems which may 
be blent into one, so is it with respect to 
Church polities. Here we give the views of 
Professor Shields, as printed in the Century: 

11 In order to bring into view these latent affini- 
ties of the American Churches, we may conveniently 
group them into three great classes, according to 
their structural likeness: 

4 4 First, Congregational those which make each 
local congregation self-governed and independent, 
such as the Baptist, the Unitarian, and the orthodox 
Churches. 

"Second, Presbyterial those which unite con- 
gregations under presbyteries composed of repre- 
sentative clergymen and laymen, such as the Lu- 
theran, the Dutch and German Reformed, and the 
various Presbyterian Churches. 



278 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



14 Third, the Episcopal, those which subordinate 
both congregations and presbyteries to bishops as 
a higher order of clergymen, such as the Methodist, 
the Protestant and Reformed Episcopal, the Mo- 
ravian, and the Roman Catholic Churches. 

4 'It will be seen at a glance that these three 
classes, when viewed together, present a rising 
scale from the simplest to the most complex forms 
of polity ; and, on closer inspection, it would be 
found that each higher class includes the lower, 
with more or less modification, Presbyterian 
Churches being not without congregational ele- 
ments, and Episcopal Churches being not without 
presbyterial elements. 

"Nor can it be said that some organic union 
of these more or less kindred organizations would 
be wholly beyond analogy and precedent. " 

When we come to bottom realities there 
is nothing in the polities of the Methodist 
sects in the United States to keep them from 
organic union ; in proof, see the union but 
recently effected among the different Meth- 
odist bodies in Canada. 

It takes all the climatic zones to make 
our world complete, or " very good." The 
quietism of one congregation or individual, 
the zealous moods of an other, and the 
almost regal formalism of a third, may all 
be in harmony with conditions and environ- 
ments, and all alike acceptable with God. 



WHITEFIELD AND WESLEY. 



279 



M One star differeth from another star in 
glory," but not in acceptable service ! There 
be angels, and cherubs, and seraphs ; but 
all are in favor with God, "of whom the 
whole family in heaven and earth is named." 
Christ being " lifted up " draws all men unto 
him. All hail, converging columns ! we 
shall meet and mingle around the great 
u white throne !" 



WHITEFIELD AND WESLEY. 

Lovingly had the two great leaders la- 
bored together in the Methodist movement, 
each the complement of the other in pulpit 
performance, and each having access to a 
class not reached by the other. Their sepa- 
ration has been a matter of universal regret 
among Christians everywhere. Wesley was 
led to inquire, " Have we not leaned too 
much to Calvinism ?" Whitefield feared 
there was too great a leaning to Arminian- 
ism ! In many a crude mind these systems 
jostle each other ; the more earnest and vig- 
orous the intellect, the greater the jostling, 
until a consistent basis is reached ; and, 
strange to say, Calvinism is consistent with 
itself, and so is Arminianism ; but they are 



28o THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

seemingly not consistent with each other. 
Grant a Calvinist his " premises " and his 
conclusion follows, despite all the logical 
efforts of his opponents. Calvinism forges 
a chain so strong that logic itself can not 
break it ; but one touch of the fire of Divine 
Love, and the chain is parted "as a thread 
of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire." 
Arminianism is safe when the battle cry is, 
" God is love." 

The outbreak between Wesley and White- 
field came unexpectedly. A member of the 
Society in London, Arcourt by name, had 
introduced disputes, till Charles Wesley 
gave directions not to admit the disturber of 
their peace. 

For admission into these societies no 
doctrinal tests had been required, but merely 
"a desire to flee from the wrath to come, 
and to be saved from sin." John Wesley 
happened to be on hand, when Arcourt next 
presented himself. Arcourt demanded to 
know whether they shut out a man " for dif- 
fering with them in opinion." Wesley asked, 
44 what opinion?" "That of election," said 
he, and went on to say that many in the 
society believed the same. Wesley replied 
that he had never asked them whether they 
did or not; "only let them not trouble others 



WHITEFIELD AND WESLEY. 



28l 



by disputing about it." " Nay, but I will 
dispute about it," said the irate Calvinist. 

Soon Mr. Cennick, whom Wesley had put 
in charge of the Kingswood School and in 
charge of the class at Bristol, developed his 
Calvinism, and led away some into his way 
of thinking. To check the progress of these 
disputations, Mr. Wesley preached and 
printed his great sermon on M Free Grace." 
Annexed to the printed sermon was Charles 
Wesley's " Hymn on Universal Redemption," 
of thirty-six stanzas, one of which is here 
given : 

" Thou canst not mock the sons of men, 
Invite us to draw nigh, 
Offer thy grace to all, and then — 
Thy grace to most deny !" ' 

Copies of this pamphlet reached America. 
Whitefield, aided by the New England Cal- 
vinists, fixed up a reply, which was circulated 
extensively in the colonies and in England. 
To this Wesley made but one objection, the 
personal attack on his character ; and for 
this attack Mr. Whitefield the next year 
humbly begged his pardon. When Wesley 
was importuned to reply to Whitefield's 
attack, how grand his response; " You may 
read Whitefield against Wesley, but Wes- 
ley against Whitefield never!" 

24 



232 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Concerning this breach, Bishop McTyeire 
has well written : " They were both equally 
conscientious. " 

Wesley is a reliable witness, and writes : 
" Those who believed universal redemption, 
had no desire to separate; but those who 
held particular redemption would not hear of 
any accommodation, being determined to have 
no fellowship with men that were in such ' dan- 
gerous errors/ So there were now two sorts 
of Methodists — those for particular and those 
for general redemption. " 

The leaders had never ceased to love each 
other ; and this temporary trouble grew 
smaller by degrees ; had not death cut down 
Whitefield, the breach might have been 
healed. The last item in his will speaks 
volumes : "N. B. — I also leave a mourning- 
ring to my honored and dear friends and dis- 
interested fellow-laborers, the Reverends 
John and Charles Wesley, in token of my 
indissoluble union with them in heart and 
Christian affection, notwithstanding our dif- 
ference in judgment about some points of 
doctrine." And when the friends in London 
were arranging for the funeral-sermon there, 
his chief executor came forward with the 
statement that Whitefield had often ex- 
pressed a desire that John Wesley, if alive 



TINKERING. 



283 



at the time, should be called upon to render 
that sad office ! How tenderly Wesley did 
so, may be seen by looking into that pathetic 
sermon itself. 

The noble trio — John and Charles Wes- 
ley and George Whitefield — have long since 
met where the redeemed " are as the angels 
of God." What workers were they ! Charles 
Wesley's Hymns number, 6,600; White- 
field preached 18,000 sermons, and John 
Wesley 42,400! 



TINKERING. 

In the proceedings of the Louisville Con- 
vention, as we have seen, a provision was 
made for a reunion of the two Methodisms, 
if such a thing were to become desirable to 
all concerned, " whether such proposed union 
be jurisdictional or connectional." ( See 
Appendix, No. 5.) 

In the spirit of fraternity the Southern 
Church, at the first General Conference, 
after the division, appointed the venerable 
Lovick Pierce to bear fraternal messages to 
the Northern brethren at their General Con- 
ference at Pittsburg in 1848. But he found 
in this body few faces that he had seen in 
the memorable General Conference at New 



284 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



York, four years before. He found the 
body one-half of the " Old Church/ ■ passing 
a resolution to repudiate the " Plan of Sepa- 
ration adopted by the entire Church at the 
New York Conference in 1844 !" u It was 
a reactionary body, elected in a revolutionay 
period. Most of the old members of 1844 
were left at home. This General Conference 
pronounced the division unconstitutional. " — 
McTyeires Hist., p. 646. 

To Dr. Pierce's note stating his presence 
and mission, he received a reply of the body 
declining "at present to enter into frater- 
nal relations with the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South." Thereupon he left, closing 
his mission with these sad, sad words : 

"You will, therefore, regard this communica- 
tion as final on the part of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South. She can never renew the 
offer of fraternal relations between the two great 
bodies of Wesleyan Methodists in the United 
States. But the proposition can be renewed at any 
time, either now or hereafter, by the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. And if ever made upon the 
basis of the Plan of Separation, as adopted by the 
General Conference of 1844, the Church South 
will cordially entertain the proposition." 

Law-suits about the Book Concerns came 
on. The court of last resort, the supreme 



THE TWO LINES OF POLICY. 



court of the nation, confirmed the rights of 
the South in every particular, under the Plan 
of Separation. (See Appendix^ Nos. 4 and 7.) 

Nature covers the scars made on battle- 
fields with a cheerful mantle of shrubs or 
grass or grain, as if unwilling that these 
scars should frown upward to a pure heaven 
forever ! Over the ugly scars made by the 
contentions of the two great Methodisms let 
a mantle of returning kindness grow. Most 
of the actors are among the dead. 



THE TWO LINES OF POLICY. 

Weary with watching and waiting, per- 
haps pinched with penitential pangs after the 
blunder of rejecting Pierce, the olive-branch 
bearer, in 1848, the Northern bishops re- 
solved to break the ice of ceremony and 
make advances of friendship towards the 
Southern Church. At their annual meeting 
at Erie, in 1865, they made and published a 
declaration "that the great cause (slavery) 
which led to the organization of the Wes- 
leyan Methodists (in the Northern States) 
on the one hand, and of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, on the other, had 
ceased to exist, and they hoped the day was 



286 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



not far distant when these Methodist bodies 
might become one family again// 

At their annual meeting at Meadville, in 
1869, they deputed two of their own num- 
ber to meet the Southern bishops at their 
annual meeting, a few weeks later, and say : 

"Dear Brethren, — It seems to us, that as 
the division of those Churches of our country 
which are of like faith and order has been pro- 
ductive of evil, so the reunion of them would be 
productive of good. As the main cause of sep- 
aration has been removed, so has the chief obstacle 
to restoration. 

4 4 It is fitting that the Methodist Church, which 
began the disunion, should not be the last to 
achieve the reunion, . . . zvhich both the love 
of country and of religion invoke, and which the 
providence of God seems to render inevitable at no 
distant day. We are aware that there are difficul- 
ties In the way. . . . We have, therefore, de- 
puted our colleagues, Morris and Janes, to confer 
with you, alike as to the propriety, practicability, 
and methods of reunion, ... to see the sev- 
ered parts united upon a foundation honorable to 
all, stable as truth, and harmonious with the fun- 
damental law of religion. ,, 

The message was delivered. Well said, 
and well done ! But union was the last 
thing these Southern bishops wished to talk 
about. Still it were pleasant to them to twit 



THE TWO LINES OF POLICY. 



287 



the messengers with a gentle reminder of 
the rejection of poor Pierce in 1848. As 
children sometimes ask questions inconven- 
ient to answer, we may ask why were these 
Southern bishops so slow to accept overtures 
from the Church North, when they had been 
so keen in their courtship of the "Methodist 
Protestants, " and of the "Christian Union 
Church" of Illinois? True, Lovick Pierce 
had been shamefully snubbed at Pittsburg in 
1848; but he had left a solemn pledge that 
friendly overtures could be renewed by the 
Northern Church "at any time." Here was 
a pivotal point in history. Emphatically this 
was a time for concerting "methods" to 
remove the difficulties between the two 
bodies. But the overtures contained too 
much, and that "much" was union. 

The Northern bishops seeing how a union 
of the two bodies would be a means of gain- 
ing access to the negroes, and of aiding in 
the reduction of illiteracy in the South,* re- 
newed their overtures to the Southern Gen- 
eral Confer e7ice in Memphis, 1870. 

The overture was challenged by Mr. 
Keener, on the ground that the commission- 
ers lacked needful authority ! There stands 



*The Southern Church had lost negro confidence; it 
was also impoverished by the war. 



288 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



the bearer of the olive branch — the vener- 
able Bishop Janes, elected by the united 
Church before the division — Janes, as much 
loved in the North as ever Pierce had 
been in the South ; there stands Janes with 
the official paper in his hand — a paper which 
says, " There are now no sufficient reasons 
why a union may not be effected on terms 
equally honorable to all ; . . . appoint a 
similar commission to meet with us previous 
to our next General Conference. . . 
We are, dear brethren, yours in Christ 
Jesus." And, after the document has been 
read, the aged bishop explains : 

"It was the intention, in a dignified and delicate 
manner, to make this communication, and it was 
not intended to be heralded in the papers. 
The act of the General Conference was lim- 
ited. ... I do not understand that we are 
authorized to take any definite action, but to learn 
what embarrassments are in the way of union, and 
to ascertain in what manner union may be effected. 
I do not think that any of us can expect that per- 
fect organic union can be effected at once without 
much negotiation ; the history of the past five 
years will not justify us in entertaining such a 
hope, and yet we do believe that the prayer of 
Christ will be heard, and the day come when his 
people shall be one." 

How did this matter end ? Much as did 



THE TWO LINES OF POLICY. 289 

Pierce's mission in 1848! Referred to a 
committee ! adverse report ! 

"4. Resolved, moreover, That if this distinguished 
commission were fully clothed with authority to 
treat with us for union, it is the judgment of this 
conference that the true interests of the Church of 
Christ require and demand the maintenance of our 
separate and distinct organization. " 

The issue was joined ; the Northern Church 
for union; the Southern against it! John 
Christian Keener, having championed the 
Southern view, was made a bishop on the 
spot ! The Northern General Conference, 
in 1872, to undo the wrong of rejecting 
fraternity in 1848, appointed an honorable 
delegation of two of their best ministers and 
an able layman to attend the next ensuing 
session of the Southern General Conference 
with kind regards and fraternal salutations. 
(See Appendix, No. 8, this volume.) Find- 
ing* union a bugaboo at Louisville, as it had 
been at Memphis, little was said on the sub- 
ject ; one of the delegates, however, threw 
out a feeler in these words : 

1 1 Leaving organic union as a question of the 
future, let us make the union of our hearts the 
question of to-day; and make one holy covenant 
that from this hour, one in sympathy and one in 
purpose, we will toil on, shoulder to shoulder, 

2 5 



290 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



waiting patiently for that near to-morrow, when 
there shall be but one Methodism for mankind. ,, 
(This was at Louisville, 1874.) 

That Southern General Conference was 
wonderfully moved by the speeches of the 
Northern delegates. But after the delegates 
had gone .home, the conference adopted a 
report. (See Appendix, No. 8). It had 
nothing to say against ' ' fraternity/ 9 but it 
put in a little " Rough-on-Rats " against 
" union. 99 We italicize the extract: 

4 ' We deem it proper to guard against 

misapprehension. Organic union is not involved in 
fraternity. In our view of the subject, the reasons 
for the separate existence of these tivo branches of 
Methodism are such as to make a corporate union un- 
desirable and impracticable." 

This then is the avowed policy of the 
Southern Methodist Church ; the policy of 
the Northern Church being directly the op- 
posite. On these two opposing lines the 
forces of the two Methodisms are now 
arrayed ! 

Really, it is much like the Confederate 
war. The great preponderance of men and 
money is with the North. The sentiment of 
the world is on that side, as well as the 
patriotic sentiment of the country, among 
outsiders and other religionists. Then, there 



THE TWO LINES OF POLICY. 29 1 

is a " union sentiment" inside the Southern 
Church, as there was inside the Confeder- 
acy — a constantly growing force. Add to all 
this "the army of occupation"— the North- 
ern net-work of conferences, districts, cir- 
cuits, stations, schools, Sunday-schools, fam- 
ilies — a membership reaching nearly up to 
that of the Southern Church in many places ! 
Says Dr. Kelly, the Southern missionary 
secretary, whose opportunity to know is ex- 
celled by none: 

"One thing it was not wanted to print, but 
you drive me to it, viz : We have relatively lost 
ground from Baltimore to the Pacific, steadily and 
persistently, for the last fifteen years/' — Advocate 
of Missions, 1885. 

Yes, the Northern Church is here, and 
constantly adding to her resources. The 
Southern Church is circumscribed — dwarfed 
and segregative or exclusive, with accelerating 
defections to the union side ! — as doomed to 
succumb, as was the Confederacy after the 
battle of Gettysburg ! The old bosses are 
as fixed in their purpose as was Jeff* Davis, 
despite the advice of Alex. Stephens. Young 
preachers tell me things that, if told to 
bishops and presiding elders, might endanger 
fair appointments ! 



2g2 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

The Northern Methodists erred in 1848, 
in rejecting fraternity, and in voting in the 
face of universal sentiment on the solemn 
league known as the Plan of Separation — 
and bitter has been the penalty ; and now 
Southern Methodism errs by spurning prof- 
fers of union, thus offending universal public 
sentiment. Northern Methodism had the 
good fortune to see her mistake, and the 
grace to undo it by act and by declaration 
in the Cape May Commission settlement. 
Will the Southern Church be equally fortu- 
nate and wise, in abandoning its untenable 
ground ? " I-Go " and 1 ' I-Go-not " were 
brothers, but it was the repentant brother 
who abandoned a wrong position and thus 
won his fathers favor. Happy is that nation 
or individual that can summon courage to 
abandon a wrong position for one of sound 
policy ! King George III and General Brad- 
dock were not in this class. It remains to 
be seen whether the Southern Church be- 
longs here or elsewhere. 

Hard sayings and hard doings among 
Methodists are not in place, and never have 
been. But some palliation may be found in 
the case of our Northern Methodist friends. 
Did they not come down, some 300,000 
strong, in 1861-5? Did they not find the 



THE TWO LINES OF POLICY. 293 

Southern Methodists arrayed against the 
government — some at home praying for Jeff 
Davis, and others in arms firing upon the 
flag and the boys in blue ? There may have 
been exceptions — and there were — "few and 
far between." Over-zealous our Northern 
brethren may have been to teach the negroes 
(and preach to them in their alienation from 
Southern Methodism) and to help efface the 
fearful illiteracy in the Southern States. But 
they met no aid and comfort from Southern 
Methodists ; but, instead, the most unrelent- 
ing opposition ! Faults there be ; but they 
are not all within the pale of any one Church, 
any more than that all fools belong to any 
one political party ! There are two sides to 
every silver sixpence ; and there are two 
sides to this question of the Southern work 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 
Southern Methodism lost its hold on negro 
confidence and of other confidence as well. 
The union of -the two Methodisms would give 
the united Methodism access to all again. 

Jeff Davis asked only one thing — to be let 
alone. Happy for the world his request was 
not granted. The Southern Methodist Church 
asks the same boon ! But the sun does not 
stay his course in the heaven or go back- 
ward, these days. Nor do revolutions. A 



294 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

political party, that is coterminous with the 
nation, acts as a balance wheel in the 
machinery of government. But sectional 
parties work mischief. The seclusive policy 
of Southern Methodism is fatal to its per- 
petuity. Its great need is union and diffu- 
sion, or expansion. 

Why should not Southern children be 
taught to feel a patriotic pride in our com- 
mon country ? From Maine to California, 
and from Alaska to Florida, there ought to 
be a common love of country. 

Columbia dear, our country and our pride, 

For thee our fathers fought of old, and died! 

If dastard foes assail, or trample on thy right, 

Call thou, " To arms! " — we '11 rise with eager might; 

Thy banner wave on land and o'er the sea, 

Sole symbol dear, of law and liberty. 

Reader, are you for the union of the 
Methodist family ? No dodging ! Here is 
an anecdote going the rounds of the papers : 

Judge David M. Key, of Tennessee, who was 
President Hayes* postmaster-general, after he had 
served a short term in the Senate, told a good story 
of a man in the mountain region of his State, who 
was a stereotype candidate for local offices of all 
descriptions, but who would never give a decided 
opinion upon any question. On one occasion when 
he was a candidate for the position of sheriff, there 
was great excitement on the enforcement of the 



THE TWO LINES OF POLICY. 2g$ 

school tax. He addressed quite a gathering at a 
muster, but evaded the only question that the au- 
dience wanted to hear about, and just as he was 
closing, a fellow shouted: 4 4 Tell us about the school 
tax. Are you for it, or are you not ?" The crowd 
cheered, and the orator, thus pressed for a declara- 
tion of opinion, said : * 4 Gentlemen, you have a right 
to ask for an answer. I have no concealment to make. 
I am a frank man, and to you I say in all frank- 
ness, if it is a good thing I am for it, and if it is a 
bad thing I am agin it." — Ben Perley Poore, in 
the Boston Budget. 

Dr. John Mathews, of Kansas City, Mo., 
formerly of New Orleans, in a letter to the 
New Orleans Christian Advocate, March n, 
1 886, seems to think the fates are against 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as 
a separate body. Hear him : 

"Dr. Cottrell's prolific pen is still touching 4 4 the 
change of name." The annual conferences by a 
large and decided majority have settled that ques- 
tion, and, in the opinion of your correspondent, by 
that act settled the fate of the Church. In the 
heart of the South the trend of things is as appar- 
ent as in the West. Quite a number voted against 
any change in our Church name, on the basis that 
such a change would hinder the union of the two 
wings of Methodism. . . . My conviction is 
now deeply rooted that our leaders have been struck 
with judicial blindness. This is a deliberate view 
after nearly five years in the border work." 



296 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



PLIABILITY OF METHODISM. 

As the waters cover all the plains of the 
deep, and as the air fits and fills all the vales 
of earth, so it has been claimed that Meth- 
odism adapts itself to the genius and institu- 
tions of the people everywhere. How 
admirably it adapted itself to the peculiar 
condition of Great Britain in the days of 
Wesley ! then to the wants of this land that 
had just bought its independence at the price 
of much blood and treasure ! What this land 
would have been without Methodism no one 
can easily imagine. When the war of 1812-15 
came, and the national affinities of the 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
who lived in Canada made it desirable to 
have a separation between them and their 
brethren in the States, the thing was readily 
done. When the agitation of slavery and 
abolitionism gave trouble, like Abraham and 
Lot of old, the delegates in that grandest of 
General Conferences, 1844, agreed to a Plan 
of ' Separation, of which Bishop Morris, as 
above quoted, has well said, " If the Plan of 
Separation had been carried out in good faith 
and Christian feeling on both sides, it would 



PLIABILITY OF METHODISM. 297 



scarcely have been felt any more than a di- 
vision of an annual conference/' 

Suppose each party had kept itself on its 
own side of the line — as did the parties in 
the separation of the Canadian Methodists 
from their brethren in the States — and that 
this had been continued till after peace had 
closed the Confederate war, then it would 
have been a question whether the two Meth- 
odisms in the Union should remain separate 
and distinct, or should re-unite, as provided 
for in the second resolution of the Louisville 
Convention, in 1845. On such a question, 
the preponderance of reasons would have 
been on the side of reunion. 

But, instead of remaining on its own terri- 
tory, as required by the Plan of Separation, 
each party had " crossed the. Rubicon" — had 
invaded the domain of the other, thousands 
of towns and communities being covered by 
the conflicting claims of both. If Methodism 
is true to her genius, she must seek adjust- 
ment here. The Cape May commission was 
in place, and did good work, but that com- 
mission ought to be followed by another au- 
thorized to complete the work already begun. 
The cause of Christ is bleeding at ten thou- 
sand places along the borders — " a dark 
and bloody ground" in Zion! 



298 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

It occurs to us, that the bishops in the 
Southern Church " missed an opportunity " 
in their method of meeting the advances of 
the Northern bishops at St. Louis, in 1869. 
Revenge is said to be sweet ; and the chance 
to say, " Aha! remember how you treated 
poor Lovick Pierce, " was present, and, in 
effect, they said it ! Was it not in the Bible, 
" Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord?" Why 
not leave retributions to him ? All infractions 
of the laws of nature, of society, of hospi- 
tality, of courtesy, bring their penalties. 
Fearful they be following the infractions of 
the solemn league, the Plan of Separation ; 
fearful they be following the indignity shown 
the " Truce Bearer, 99 Dr. Pierce, in 1848; 
and fearful be those following the rejection 
of the olive-branch overtures made through 
Bishops Janes and Simpson, at St. Louis, in 
1869. Each party stands aloof, waiting for 

the other to apologize? 11 waiting for 

something to turn up." Men and brethren, 
and ye that fear God, all along u the border" 
or elsewhere, let us dare be true to God, 
to Methodism, to our country, and to our- 
selves. The evils of the present system cry 
to heaven. Let us not entail them upon our 
children's children. Let Methodism bring 
back her former glory — adapt itself to the 



ONE BREACH HEALED. 299 

wants of our times and conditions — that we 
may again dwell in peace. 

Of course there are thousands in the two 
antagonistic Churches who can hardly be 
held responsible for the present schismatical 
state of affairs. They had no hand in bringing 
these troubles about, and perhaps have not 
been conscious of any agency in continuing 
them. But the time of this unaccountability 
is passing away with many, and they feel it 
their duty to try to end these troubles that 
afflict ten thousand communities in these 
broad lands. No wonder such awakened 
persons are unwilling that these evils shall 
disturb generations yet unborn ! 



ONE BREACH HEALED. 

"The question of slavery, which existed in the 
public mind generally, gave rise to warm and pro- 
tracted discussions in the Methodist Protestant 
Church. The right of suffrage and of holding 
office having been given only to white male mem- 
bers, became a special cause of complaint. A con- 
vention was held by ministers and members of the 
Protestant [Methodist] Churches for the North and 
West in Cincinnati, at which they agreed not to 
attend the conference which was to meet in Lynch- 
burg in May, 1858. A memorial was prepared 
setting forth their terms, which required that the 



300 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



word white should be stricken from the constitution, 
and that voluntary slave-holding and slave-trading 
should be made a barrier to membership ; that if 
the General Conference should recommend such 
action to the annual conferences, they would re- 
main, otherwise they would hold no further eccle- 
siastical connection. At the session of 1858 this 
memorial was presented. The paper was consid- 
ered and respectfully answered, declining to accede 
to the terms of the memorialists, but proposing 
certain measures of pacification. The result was a 
secession of the Northern and Western Conferences, 
which carried with them about one-half of the 
membership." — Meth. Cyclopedia, p. 590. 

After the usual maneuvering these se- 
cessionists formed themselves into u The 
Methodist Church, " anti-slavery to the core. 
They took measures to meet a union move- 
ment with the Wesleyan Methodist Church 
and other anti-slavery smaller bodies. 

44 A conference for this purpose met at Cleve- 
land in 1867. The attempt to unite the various 
bodies was not successful ; a few entered the 
union, but the opposition of the great part of the 
Wesleyans to secret societies, and their determina- 
tion to make this a term of membership, prevented 
its full consummation. Emancipation having taken 
place during the Civil War, the question of slavery 
was removed from the arena of controversy, and 
many persons both in the Methodist Protestant 



ONE BREACH HEALED. 



30I 



and the 1 Methodist ' bodies felt that there was no 
further occasion of separation. 

' 4 In 1 87 1 a commission was appointed to con- 
fer with the Methodist Protestant Church for re- 
union, and after various negotiations a convention 
Avas called to meet in May, 1877. This convention 
assembled in Baltimore, May nth, first as two 
separate bodies. . . . After several days spent 
in separate discussions, a basis of union was agreed 
upon, and on the 16th of May the two conventions 
met at the corner of Lombard and Fremont Streets, 
and the members joining arm-in-arm marched to 
Starr Church, where, on the following day, they 
organized as the United Protestant Methodist con- 
vention. ... A new constitution and Disci- 
pline were prepared in accord with the basis of 
union, and thus closed the existence of ' the Meth- 
odist Church ' as a separate and distinct body. " — 
Cyclopedia of Methodism, p. 390. 

Thank God! one schism was ended. 
Now why not the two Episcopal Methodisms 
manage likewise, and bury another? They 
ought to have as much good sense as their 
neighbors. 

We advocate a unification of the Meth- 
odist family for many reasons, among them 
the following : — 

1. It would help the cause of Christ 
throughout the world, and gladden the saints 
in heaven. 



302 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



2. Each branch of the now divided family 
would be a gainer thereby. 

3. It is needed for missionary ends, both 
at home and abroad. 

4. The Sunday-school cause would thereby 
be greatly helped. 

5. Good economy in pastoral work and in 
church-building demands it. 

6. It would remove a stumbling-block 
out of the way of many a saint and many a 
sinner. 

7. The healing of the breach in the 
3,000,000 Methodist family would strengthen 
the bonds of our great nation. 

8. Educational interests demand this un- 
ion — especially in the Southern States. 

9. The peace and religious interests of 
countless communities demand the same. 

10. Families now estranged by the sense- 
less antagonism need the new order of 
things — the reunion of the old Church. 

11. The interests of the colored people 
would be benefited thereby. 

12. True charity demands it. 



A METHOD J ST CONGRESS. 303 



A METHODIST CONGRESS. 

[From the Central Christian Advocate.] 
" Why should we not have an American Meth- 
odist Church Congress? We have had an Ecumen- 
ical Conference of all the Methodist organizations, 
and a Centennial Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Churches, in both of which we emphasized 
our points of agreement and preserved a brotherly 
silence on our differences. The general impression 
is, these assemblies have been of inestimable value. 
We found ourselves so nearly one in heart and 
thought that we could hardly refrain from asking, 
"Why are we not one in organization?" There 
was such closeness of Christian fellowship and sin- 
cerity of brotherly regard among those who had 
stood apart that it was no small happiness simply 
to sit together. It was, no doubt, wise that con- 
ferences, constituted as these were, should not 
discuss differences of Church organization, which 
are nearly the only Methodist differences. But 
there are no good reasons why the differences and 
certain tendencies in Methodism at large should not 
be thoroughly canvassed and discussed by a com- 
pany of representative men of the various Meth- 
odist organizations. We are sure that misunder- 
standings would be dissipated, and that we should 
find ourselves nearer together by a frank interchange 
of thought on our differences, and that we should 
enable each other to arrive at more correct judg- 
ments. Some of our differences have been little 



304 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



more than hasty methods of developments pursued 
by earnest men who were hardly treated with the 
consideration which they deserved. Time and 
thought have placed them in new lights. 

"Why, then, again we ask, should not the rep- 
resentative men of American Methodism take 
advantage of the example furnished by the Church 
Congress? No other Churches more clearly recog- 
nize the principle of Church development and the 
wisdom of observing the presence of the Holy 
Spirit and the leadings of Providence. Meeting 
on a common ground, to discuss the questions of 
the times on their merits, we should at least im- 
prove in Christian charity and Christian fellowship." 

Indorsing the suggestion, the New Or- 
leans Christian Advocate, November 26, 
1885, says : 

4 'There is timeliness in the suggestion, and we 
give it our cordial approval. . . . Such a 
movement would be helpful to our Methodism in 
many ways." 

FRATERNITY AND UNION. 

Bishop Matthew Simpson is generally 
held in high esteem, and we beg leave to 
introduce his statement on the fraternal status 
of Methodist bodies in the nation. — See Cy- 
clopedia of Methodism, pp. 377— 8 : 

In the United States the "Protestants," which 
separated in 1828; the "African Methodists," 



FRATERNITY AND UNION. 



305 



which separated in 1816 and 1820; and the " Wes- 
leyan Methodists," which separated in 1842, long 
remained without any fraternal relations being 
established. All these bodies were recognized as 
having withdrawn from the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and as having created separate and dis- 
tinct bodies, no provision having been made in any 
way looking towards such separation by the Gen- 
eral Conference of the Church. At the General 
Conference of 1844 the discussions and decisions 
in the case of Mr. Harding and of Bishop Andrew 
led to such a state of feeling that a separation ap- 
peared inevitable, and action was taken by the 
General Conference looking to that possible con- 
tingency. Unfortunately, the language used was 
somewhat indefinite, and the Churches in the va- 
rious sections of the Union took different views 
of what was designed and what was granted by the 
General Conference ; the South claiming that full 
permission was given for the Southern conferences 
to erect themselves into a distinct organization, 
while the conferences in the North claimed that 
such permission was suspended on certain condi- 
tions. The separation occurred in 1845, an< ^ a 
General Conference of the Southern organization, 
which met in 1846, appointed Dr. Lovick Pierce 
as a delegate to visit the General Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1848, for the pur- 
pose of establishing fraternal relations between the 
two divisions of the Church. In the meantime 
controversies sprung up upon the border, and a 
lawsuit in reference to a division of the Book 

26 



306 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Concern was apprehended. When the General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
assembled at Pittsburg, in 1848, Dr. Pierce pre- 
sented his credentials, and was kindly received per- 
sonally, 1 but the General Conference declined the 
proposition to establish fraternal relations before 
the difficulties were settled. The two Churches 
remained without any fraternal intercourse until 
after the close of the civil war. It was then sup- 
posed that the questions connected with the Book 
Concern having been settled by the decision of 
the Supreme Court, and the questions, directly or 
indirectly springing out of slavery, having been 
removed, the barriers to fraternal relations no 
longer existed. Accordingly, the General Confer- 
ence of 1868 appointed a commission "to confer 
with a like commission from the African Methodist 
Episcopal Zion Church/' who were also "empow- 
ered to treat with a similar commission from any 
other Methodist Church that may desire like 
union." In April, 1869, the bishops of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church appointed Bishops Janes 
and Simpson to visit and confer with the bishops 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who met 
in St. Louis the next month. The visit was made 
and a friendly correspondence ensued, but without 
any definite action. The commission appointed by 
the General Conference requested Bishop Janes and 
Dr. W. L. Harris to attend the General Conference 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at 
Memphis, in 1870. They were kindly received and 
treated with great respect, but as that body regarded 



FRATERNITY AND UNION. 



307 



the committee as appointed to treat on the sub- 
ject of union only, no specific advance was made, 
though a kindlier feeling was awakened between the 
two branches of the Church. At the General Con- 
ference of 1872 authority was given to appoint a com- 
mittee of two ministers and one layman to con- 
vey fraternal greetings to the General Conference 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This 
commission consisted of Albert S. Hunt, D. D. , 
Charles H. Fowler, D. D., and Clinton B. Fisk. 
They visited the General Conference of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South, at Louisville, in 
May, 1874, were received with great cordiality, and 
in turn that General Conference authorized a dele- 
gation, consisting of two ministers and one layman, 
to bear their Christian salutations to the ensuing 
General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church ; and, in order to remove all obstacles to a 
formal fraternity, the bishops were authorized to 
appoint a commission of three ministers and two 
laymen, to meet a similar commission appointed by 
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, to adjust all existing difficulties. Accord- 
ingly, Lovick Pierce, D. D. , James A. Duncan, D. 
D., Landon C. Garland, LL. D., were appointed 
delegates to visit the General Conference, and E. 
H. Myers, D. D., R. K. Hargrove, D. D., Thomas 
M. Finney, D. D., Hon. Trusten Polk, and Hon. 
David Clopton were appointed commissioners. Mr. 
Polk having died before the meeting, the bishops 
appointed Hon. R. B. Vance in his stead. The 
delegates met the General Conference of the Meth- 



303 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



odist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, in May, 
1876, except Dr. Pierce, who was unable, on ac- 
count of feebleness, to be present, but who sent a 
long and fraternal letter of greeting. They were 
received with great cordiality, and the General 
Conference appointed as commissioners, to confer 
with theirs, M. D'C. Crawford, D. D., Hon. Enoch 
L. Fancher, LL. D., Erasmus Q. Fuller, D. D., 
John P. Newman, D. D. , and General Clinton B. 
Fisk. The commissioners of both bodies met at 
Cape May, N. J., August 17, 1876, and, after a 
very pleasant session of six days, the commission- 
ers, by a unanimous vote, approved of an address 
(which was published) to the bishops, ministers, 
and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, ac- 
companied by a basis upon which they advised that 
all the disputes between the Churches concerning 
Church property should be settled. This agreement 
has been very generally approved by the ministers 
and members of both bodies, and on the proposed 
basis the disputes concerning Church property 
have been generally settled. Though the commis- 
sion on union, appointed by the General Confer- 
ence of 1868, produced no direct results, yet, under 
its influence fraternal feelings largely increased, and 
at the General Conferences of 1872 and of 1876 
delegations were received from nearly all the Meth- 
odist bodies in the United States and Canada, as 
well as from Great Britain and Ireland. 

So far Bishop Simpson. We will add that 
these fraternal delegations have been passing 



FRA TERN IT Y AND UNION. 



309 



to and from each Episcopal Methodism on 
General Conference occasions. And if a few 
more of the older warriors be called to the 
11 General Assembly 99 above, another Cape 
May commission may arrange terms for a 
grand reunion. For this event let all peace- 
makers pray. Yes, give another Cape May 
joint commission, made up of men true and 
tried. As to methods of procedure in bring- 
ing about the needful reunion between the 
two leading Methodisms, there need be little 
trouble. If the General Conference of 1844 
had the power to resolve itself into two bod- 
ies, as the Supreme Court and the Cape 
May commission have averred, then these 
two bodies, in their respective sovereignties, 
can agree upon a consolidation. 

When these bodies wished a settlement 
of some affairs, the Northern General Con- 
ference cheerfully met a proposition made by 
the Southern in the following words : 

"Resolved, That, in order to remove all 
obstacles to a formal fraternity between the 
two Churches, our college of bishops is au- 
thorized to appoint a commission of three 
ministers and two laymen, to meet a similar 
commission authorized by the General Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
to adjust all existing difficulties. 99 



3IO THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 

That plan worked like a charm. Now, 
why not have another such commission? 
The above resolution will serve as an admir- 
able basis, by a change of only one word ! 
Take out the word " fraternity/ 9 and put the 
word union in its place, and the work, like 
my book, is done ! 

Amen! 



APPENDIX 



i. 

THE FINLEY RESOLUTION. 

" Whereas, The Discipline of our Church for- 
bids the doing of any thing calculated to destroy 
our itinerant general superintendency ; and whereas 
Bishop Andrew has become connected with slavery 
by marriage and otherwise, and this act having 
drawn after it circumstances which in the estima- 
tion of the General Conference will greatly em- 
barrass the exercise of his office as an itinerant 
general superintendent, if not in some places en- 
tirely prevent it; therefore, 

''Resolved, That it is the sense of this General 
Conference that he desist from the exercise of this 
office so long as this impediment remains." 

(Adopted, ayes ill; nays 69.) 

II. 

THE CAPERS PAPER. 

* * Be it resolved by the delegates of all the an- 
nual conferences in General Conference assembled, 
That we recommend to the annual conferences to 
suspend the constitutional restrictions which limit 
the powers of the General Conference so far, and 
so far only, as to allow of the following alterations 
in the government of the Church, viz: 

"1. That the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
these United States and Territories and the Re- 

3" 



312 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



public of Texas shall constitute two General Con- 
ferences, to meet quadrennially, the one at some 
place south, and the other north, of the line which 
now divides between the States commonly desig- 
nated as free States and those in which slavery 
exists. 

"2. That each of the two General Conferences 
thus constituted shall have full powers, under the 
limitations and restrictions which are now of force 
and binding on the General Conference, to make 
rules and regulations for the Church, within their 
territorial limits respectively, and to elect bishops 
for the same. 

"3. That the two General Conferences afore- 
said shall have jurisdiction as follows: The South- 
ern General Conference shall comprehend the 
States of Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, and 
the States and Territories lying southerly thereto, 
and also the Republic of Texas, to be known and 
designated by the title of the Southern General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 
the United States; and the Northern General Con- 
ference to comprehend all those States and Terri- 
tories lying north of the States of Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, and Missouri, as above, to be known and 
designated by the title of the Northern General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 
the United States. 

"4. And be it further resolved, That as soon as 
three-fourths of all the members of all the annual 
conferences vote on these resolutions, and shall ap- 
prove the same, the said Southern and Northern 



APPENDIX. 



313 



General Conferences shall be deemed as having 
been constituted by such approval; and it shall be 
competent for the Southern annual conferences to 
elect delegates to said Southern General Confer- 
ence to meet in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, 
on the 1st of May, 1848, or sooner, if a majority 
of two- thirds of the ministers of the annual confer- 
ences composing that General Conference shall de- 
sire the same. 

"5. And be it further resolved as aforesaid, That 
the Book Concerns at New York and Cincinnati 
shall be held and conducted as the property and 
for the benefit of all the annual conferences as 
heretofore — the editors and agents to~T)e elected 
once in four years at the time of the sessions of 
the Northern General Conference, and the votes of 
the Southern General Conference to be cast by the 
delegates of that conference attending the North- 
ern for that purpose. 

"6. And be it further resolved, That our Church 
organization for Foreign Missions shall be main- 
tained and conducted jointly between the two Gen- 
eral Conferences as one Church, in such manner 
as shall be agreed upon from time to time between 
the two great branches of the Church as repre- 
sented in said two conferences. n 

("Two General Conferences as one Church" — 
"two great branches of the Church" — a united 
people after all !) 

27 



3H 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



III. 

DECLARATION OF THE SOUTHERN DELE- 
GATES, 1844. 

"The delegates of the conferences in the slave- 
holding States take leave to declare to the General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church that 
the continued agitation of the subject of slavery 
and abolition in a portion of the Church, and the 
frequent action on that subject in the General Con- 
ference, and especially the extra-judicial proceed- 
ings against Bishop Andrew, which resulted, on 
Saturday last, in the virtual suspension of him from 
his office as superintendent, must produce a state 
of things in the South which renders a continuance 
of the jurisdiction of this General Conference over 
these conferences inconsistent with the success of 
the ministry in the slave-holding States." 

(Signed by the fifty-one Southern Delegates.) 

IV. 

PLAN OF SEPARATION. 

4 ' The select committee of nine to consider and 
report on the declaration of the delegates from the 
conferences in the slave-holding States beg leave to 
submit the following report: 

"Whereas, a declaration has been presented 
to this General Conference, with the signatures of 
fifty-one delegates of the body from thirteen annual 
conferences in the slave-holding States, representing 
that, for various reasons enumerated, the objects 
and purposes of the Christian ministry and Church 



APPENDIX. 



315 



organization can not be successfully accomplished 
by them under, the jurisdiction of this General 
Conference as now constituted ; and 

" Whereas, in the event of a separation, a 
contingency to which the declaration asks attention 
as not improbable, we esteem it the duty of this 
General Conference to meet the emergency with 
Christian kindness and the strictest equity ; 
therefore, 

" Resolved, By the delegates of the several an- 
nual conferences in General Conference assembled, 

" 1. That, should the annual conferences in the 
slave holding States find it necessary to unite in a 
distinct ecclesiastical connection, the following rule 
shall be observed with regard to the Northern 
boundary of such connection : — 

"All the societies, stations, and conferences 
adhering to the Church in the South, by a vote of 
a majority of the members of said societies, sta- 
tions, and conferences, shall remain under the 
unmolested pastoral care of the Southern Church ; 
and all the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church shall in no wise attempt to organize 
Churches or societies within the limits of the 
Church, South, nor shall they attempt to exercise 
any pastoral oversight therein ; it being understood 
that the ministry of the South reciprocally observe 
the same rule in relation to stations, societies, and 
conferences, adhering, by vote of a majority, to the 
Methodist Episcopal Church ; provided also, that 
this rule shall apply only to societies, stations, and 
conferences bordering on the line of division, and 



3i6 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



not to interior charges, which shall in all cases be 
left to the care of that Church within whose terri- 
tory they are situated. 

11 2. That ministers, local and traveling, of every 
grade and office in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
may, as they prefer, remain in that Church, or 
without blame, attach themselves to the Church, 
South. 

"3. Resolved, By the delegates of all the an- 
nual conferences in General Conference assembled, 
that we recommend to all the annual conferences, 
at their first approaching sessions, to authorize a 
change in the sixth restrictive article, so that the 
first clause shall read thus: * They shall not appro- 
priate the produce of the Book Concern, nor of the 
Chartered Fund, to any other purpose than for the 
benefit of the traveling, supernumerary, superannu- 
ated, and worn-out preachers, their wives, widows, 
and children, and to such other purposes as may be 
determined upon by vote of two thirds of the mem- 
bers of the General Conference. 

"4. That whenever the annual conferences, by 
a vote of three-fourths of all their members voting 
on the third resolution, shall have concurred in the 
recommendation to alter the sixth restrictive article, 
the agents at New York and Cincinnati shall, and 
they are hereby authorized and directed to deliver 
over to any authorized agent or appointee of the 
Church, South, should one be organized, all notes 
and book-accounts against the ministers, Church 
members, or citizens, within its boundaries, with 
authority to collect the same for the sole use of the 



APPENDIX. 



317 



Southern Church, and that said agents also convey 
to aforesaid agent or appointee of the South, all 
the real estate, and assign to him all the property, 
including presses, stock, and all right and interest 
connected with- the printing establishments at 
Charleston, Richmond, and Nashville, which now 
belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

"5. That when the annual conferences shall 
have approved the aforesaid change in the sixth 
restrictive article, there shall be transferred to the 
above agent for the Southern Church so much of 
the capital and produce of the Methodist Book 
Concern as will, with the notes, book-accounts, 
presses, etc., mentioned in the last resolution, bear 
the same proportion to the whole property of said 
concern that the traveling preachers in the South- 
ern Church shall bear to all the traveling ministers 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; the division 
to be made on the basis of the number of traveling 
preachers in the forthcoming minutes. 

"6. That the above transfer shall be in the 
form of annual payments of $25,000 per annum, 
and specifically in stock of the Book Concern, and 
in Southern notes and accounts due the establish- 
ment, and accruing after the first transfer mentioned 
above ; and until the payments are made, the 
Southern Church shall share in the net profits of 
the Book Concern, in the proportion that the 
amount due them, or in arrears, bears to all the 
property of the concern. 

"7. That Nathan Bangs, George Peck, and 
James B. Finley be, and they are, hereby appointed 



3i8 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



commissioners to act in concert with the same num- 
ber of commissioners appointed by the Southern 
organization (should one be formed), to estimate 
the amount which will fall due to the South by the 
preceding rule, and to have full powers to carry 
into effect the whole arrangements proposed with 
regard to the division of property, should the sepa- 
ration take place. And if by any means a vacancy 
occurs in this board of commissioners, the book 
committee at New York shall fill said vacancy. 

"8. That whenever any agents of the Southern 
Church are clothed with legal authority or corpo- 
rate power to act in the premises, the agents at New 
York are hereby authorized and directed to act in 
concert with said Southern agents, so as to give 
the provisions of these resolutions a legally bind- 
ing force. 

"9. That all the property of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in meeting-houses, parsonages, 
colleges, schools, conference funds, cemeteries, and 
of every kind within the limits of ♦the Southern 
organization, shall forever be free from any claim 
set up, on the part of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, so far as this resolution can be of force in 
the premises. 

" 10. That the Church so formed in the South 
shall have a common right to use all the copy- 
rights in possession of the Book Concerns at New 
York and Cincinnati, at the time of settlement by 
the commissioners. 

" II. That the book agents at New York be 
directed to make such compensation to the confer- 



APPENDIX. 



319 



ences South, for their dividend from the Chartered 
Fund, as the commissioners above provided for 
shall agree upon. 

"12. That the bishops be respectfully requested 
to lay that part of this report requiring the action 
of the annual conferences before them as soon as 
possible, beginning with the New York Conference." 

(The first resolution was adopted — ayes, 135 ; 
noes, 15. The second was adopted — ayes, 139; 
noes, 17. — The third — ayes, 147; noes, 10. The 
fifth — ayes, 153; noes, 13. - The other resolutions 
adopted without a division.) 

V. 

LOUISVILLE CONVENTION. 

" 1. Be it resolved, by the delegates of the several 
annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in the slave-holding States, in General Convention as- 
sembled, That it is right, expedient, and necessary 
to erect the annual conferences represented in this 
convention into a distinct ecclesiastical connection, 
separate from the jurisdiction of the General Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as at 
present constituted ; and accordingly, we, the dele- 
gates of said annual conferences, acting under the 
provisional 

PLAN OF SEPARATION 
Adopted by the General Conference of 1844, 

do solemnly declare the jurisdiction hitherto exer- 
cised over said annual conferences by the General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church is 
entirely dissolved; and that said annual conferences 
shall be, and they are, hereby constituted a sepa- 



320 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



rate ecclesiastical connection, under the provisional 
Plan of Separation aforesaid, and based upon the 
Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
comprehending the doctrines and the entire moral, 
ecclesiastical, and economical rules and regulations 
of said Discipline, except only so far as verbal 
alterations may be necessary to a distinct organiza- 
tion, and to be known by the style and title of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South." 

(Adopted. Ayes, 94; noes, 3.) 

"2. Resolved, That we can not abandon or com- 
promise the principles of action, upon which we 
proceed to a separate organization in the South ; 
nevertheless, cherishing a sincere desire to maintain a 
Christian union and fraternal intercourse with the 
Church North, we shall always be ready, kindly 
and respectfully, to entertain and duly and carefully 
consider any proposition or plan having for its ob- 
ject the union of the two great bodies in the 
North and South, whether such proposed union be 
jurisdictional or connectional." 

(Adopted. Ayes, 97 ; noes, o.) 

VI. 

ACTION OF GENERAL CONFERENCE AT 
PITTSBURG, 1848. 

" I. There exists no power in the General Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to pass 
an act which either effectuates, authorizes, or sanc- 
tions a division of the Church. 

"2. It is the right of every member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church to remain in said 



APPENDIX. 



321 



Church, unless guilty of some violation of its rules; 
and there exists no power in the ministry, either 
individually or collectively, to deprive any member 
of said right. 

"3. This right being inviolably secured by the 
fifth restrictive article of the Discipline, which 
guarantees to members, ministers, and preachers 
the right of trial and appeal, any acts of the Church 
otherwise separating them from said Church con- 
travenes the constitutional rights and privileges of 
the membership and ministry. 

M 4. The report of the select committee of nine 
(Plan of Separation), upon the declaration of the 
delegates in the slave-holding States, adopted by 
the General Conference of 1844, of which the 
memorialists complain, and the operation of which 
deprived them of their privileges as members of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, was intended to 
meet a necessity which it was alleged might arise, 
and was given as a peace-offering, to secure har- 
mony on our Southern border. It was further 
made dependent, first, upon the concurrence of 
three-fourths of the members of the several annual 
conferences, in reference to a part of its regulations ; 
and secondly, upon the observance of certain pro- 
visions respecting a boundary, by the distinct ec- 
clesiastical connection separating from us, should 
such connection be formed. Without waiting, as 
this conference believes, for the occurrence of the 
anticipated necessity for which the plan was formed, 
action was taken in the premises by the Southern 
delegates. The annual conferences, by their votes 



322 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



officially received, have refused to concur with that 
part of the plan submitted to them ; and the pro- 
visions respecting a boundary have been violated 
by the highest authorities of said connection which 
separated from us, and thereby the peace and har- 
mony of many of the societies on our Southern 
border have been destroyed ; therefore, in view of 
these facts, as well as for the principles contained 
in the preceding declarations, there exists no obli- 
gation on the part of this conference to observe 
the provisions of said plan, and it is hereby declared 
null and void. 1 * 

VII. 

DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE 
UNITED STATES. 
(April 25, 1854) 
William A. Smith and others 
versus 

Leroy Swormstedt and others. 
16 H. 288 

Upon a bill in equity by several traveling 
preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, in behalf of themselves and the other 
traveling preachers of that organization, held, 

1. That as numerous parties had a common in- 
terest in a fund in controversy, a few might sue, 
representing the others. 

2. That the General Conference, in 1844, had 
power to consent to a division of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church into two bodies, and that the 
separation was not a secession of a part of the 



APPENDIX. 



323 



traveling preachers from that Church, but a division, 
in pursuance of proper authority. 

3. That this division carried with it, as a mat- 
ter of law, a division of the common property, 
which belonged to the traveling preachers, as such. 

4. That the removal of the sixth restrictive 
article, was not a condition to the enjoyment by 
the Church, South, of its share of the common 
fund, but to enable the General Conference to 
make the division. 

5. That as the complainants not only repre- 
sent the other traveling preachers South, but the 
" Book Concern " there, the share of the fund they 
thus represent may properly be paid over to them. 

The case is stated in the opinion of the Court. 
Stanbery, for the appellants. 
Badger and Ezving y contra. 

Nelson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. 

This is an appeal from a decree of the Circuit 
Court of the United States for the District of Ohio. 

The bill is filed by the complainants, for them- 
selves, and in behalf of the traveling and worn-out 
preachers in connection with the society of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the United 
States, against the defendants, to recover their 
share of the fund called the Book Concern, at the 
city of Cincinnati, consisting of houses, machinery, 
printing presses, book-bindery, books, etc., claimed 
to be of the value of some $200, oco. 

The bill charges that, at and before the year 
1844, there existed in the United States a volun- 
tary association unincorporated, known as the 



324 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES, 



Methodist Episcopal Church, composed of seven 
bishops, four thousand eight hundred and twenty- 
eight preachers belonging to the traveling connec- 
tion, and in bishops, ministers, and members, 
about one million one hundred and nine thousand 
nine hundred and sixty, united and bound together 
in one organized body by certain doctrines of faith 
and morals, and by certain rules of government 
and discipline. 

That the government of the Church was vested 
in one body called the General Conference, and in 
certain subordinate bodies called annual confer- 
ences, and in bishops, traveling ministers, and 
preachers. 

The bill refers to a printed volume, entitled 
4 'The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church," as containing the constitution, 
organization, form of government, and rules of 
discipline, as well as the doctrines of faith of the 
association. 

The complainants farther charge that differences 
and disagreements had sprung up in the Church 
between what was called the Northern and South- 
ern members, in respect to the administration of 
the government with reference to the ownership of 
slaves by the ministers of the Church, of such a 
character and attended with such consequences as 
threatened greatly to impair its usefulness, as well 
as permanently to disturb its harmony ; and it be- 
came and was a question of grave and serious im- 
portance whether a separation ought not to take 
place, according to some geographical boundary to 



APPENDIX. 



325 



be agreed upon, so as that the Methodist Episcopal 
Church should thereafter, constitute two separate 
and distinct organizations. And that, accordingly, 
at a session of the General Conference held in the 
city of New York in May, 1844, a resolution was 
passed by a majority of over three-fourths of the 
body, by which it was determined, that if the an- 
nual conferences of the slave-holding States should 
find it necessary to unite in a distinct ecclesiastical 
connection, the following rule should be observed 
with regard to the Northern boundary of such con- 
nection — all the societies, stations, and conferences 
adhering to the Church in the South, by a vote of a 
majority of the members, should remain under the 
pastoral care of the Southern Church; and all ad- 
hering to the Church, North, by a like vote, should 
remain under the pastoral care of that Church. This 
Plan of Separation contains eleven other resolutions, 
relating principally to the mode and terms of the 
division of the common property of the association 
between the two divisions, in case the separation 
contemplated should take place; and which, in 
effect, provide for a pro rata division, taking the 
number of traveling preachers in the Church, North 
and South, as the basis upon which to make the 
partition. 

The complainants farther charge that, in pur- 
suance of the above resolutions, the annual confer- 
ences in the slave-holding States met and resolved 
in favor of a distinct and independent organization, 
and erected themselves into a separate ecclesias- 
tical connection, under the provisional Plan of 



326 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



Separation, based upon the Discipline of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and to be known as the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. And they 
insist that, by virtue of these proceedings, this 
Church, as it had existed in the United States 
previous to the year 1844, became and was divided 
into two separate Churches, with distinct and inde- 
pendent powers and authority, composed of the 
several annual conferences, stations, and societies, 
lying North and South of the aforesaid line of 
division. And also, that by force of the same pro- 
ceedings the division of the Church, South, became 
and was entitled to its proportion of the common 
property, real and personal, of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, which belonged to it at the time 
the separation took place; that the property and 
funds of the Church had been obtained by volun- 
tary contributions, to which the members of the 
Church, South, had contributed more than their 
full share, and which, down to the time of the sep- 
aration, belonged in common to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, as then organized. 

The complainants charge that they are mem- 
bers of the Church, South, and preachers, some of 
them supernumerary and some superannuated 
preachers, and belonged to the traveling connec- 
tion of said Church, and that, as such, have a per- 
sonal interest in the property, real and personal, 
held by the Church, North, and in the hands of 
the defendants ; and, farther, that there are about 
fifteen hundred preachers belonging to the traveling 
connection of the Church, South, each of whom 



APPENDIX. 



327 



has a direct and personal interest in the same right 
with the complainants in said property, the large 
number of whom make it inconvenient and im- 
practicable to bring them all before the court as 
complainants. 

They also charge that the defendants are mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North; 
and that each, as such, has a personal interest in 
the property ; and, farther, that two of them have 
the custody and control of the fund in question ; 
and that, in addition to these defendants, there 
are nearly thirty-eight hundred preachers belong- 
ing to the traveling connection of the Church, 
North, each of whom has an interest in the fund 
in the same right, so that it is impossible, in view 
of sustaining a just decision in the matter, to make 
them all parties to the bill. 

The complainants also aver that this bill is 
brought by the authority and under the direction, 
of the general and annual conferences of the 
Church, South, and for the benefit of the same, 
and for themselves, and all the preachers in the 
traveling connection, and all other ministers and 
persons having an interest in the property. 

The defendants, in their answer, admit most 
of the facts charged in the bill, as it respects the 
organization, government, discipline, and faith of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church as it existed at 
and previous to the year 1844. They admit the 
passage of the resolutions, called the Plan of Sep- 
aration, at the session of the General Conference 
of that year, by the majority stated ; but deny that 



328 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



the resolutions were duly and legally passed; and 
also deny that the General Conference possessed 
the competent power to pass them, and submit 
that they were therefore null and void. They also 
submit that, if the General Conference possessed 
the power, the separation contemplated was made 
dependent upon certain conditions, and among 
others a change in the sixth restrictive article in 
the constitution of the Church, by a vote of the 
annual conferences, which vote the said confer- 
ences refused. 

The defendants admit the erection of the 
Church, South, into a distinct ecclesiastical organ- 
ization ; but deny that it was done agreeably to 
the Plan of Separation. They deny that the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, as it existed in 1844, or at 
any time, has been divided into two distinct and 
separate ecclesiastical organizations ; and submit 
that the separation and voluntary withdrawal from 
this Church of a portion of the bishops, ministers, 
and members, and organization into a Church, 
South, was an unauthorized separation ; and that 
they have thereby renounced and forfeited all 
claim, either in law or equity, to any portion of 
the property in question. The defendants admit 
that the Book Concern at Cincinnati, with all the 
houses, lots, printing-presses, etc., is now, and 
always has been, beneficially the property of the 
preachers belonging to the traveling connection of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church ; but insist that, 
if such preachers do not, during life, continue in 
the traveling connection and in the communion, 



APPENDIX. 



329 



and subject to the government of the Church, they 
forfeit for themselves and families all ownership in, 
or claim to, the said Book Concern, and the pro- 
duce thereof ; they admit that the Book Concern 
was originally commenced and established by the 
traveling preachers of this Church upon their own 
capital, with the design, in the first place, of cir- 
culating religious knowledge, and that, at the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1796, it was determined that 
the profits derived from the sale of books should, 
in the future, be devoted wholly to the relief of 
traveling preachers, supernumerary and worn-out 
preachers, and the widows and orphans of such 
preachers — and the defendants submit that the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is not entitled 
at law or in equity to have a division of the prop- 
erty of the Book Concern, or the produce, or to 
any portion thereof ; and that the ministers, preach- 
ers, or members, in connection with such Church, 
are not entitled to any portion of the same ; and, 
farther, that being no longer traveling preachers 
belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church, they 
are not so entitled, without a change of the sixth 
restrictive article of the constitution of 1808, pro- 
vided for in the Plan of Separation, as a condition 
of the partition of said fund. 

The proofs in the case consist chiefly of the 
proceedings of the General Conference of 1844, 
relating to the separation of the Church, and of 
the proceedings of the Southern conferences, in 
pursuance of which a distinct and separate eccle- 
siastical organization South took place. 

28 



33o 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



There is no material controversy between the 
parties, as it respects the facts. The main differ- 
ence lies in the interpretation and effect to be given 
to the acts and proceedings of these several bodies 
and authorities of the Church. Our opinion will 
be founded almost wholly upon facts alleged in the 
bill, and admitted in the answer. 

[Here follow references to legal opinions and 
sundry remarks about suits brought by a few, out 
of many claimants, etc.] 

We will now proceed to an examination of the 
merits of the case. . . . 

In the year 1844 the traveling preachers, in Gen- 
eral Conference assembled, for causes which it is 
not important particularly to refer to, agreed upon 
a plan for a division of the Methodist Church in 
case the annual conferences in the slave-holding 
States should deem it necessary ; and to the erec- 
tion of two separate and distinct ecclesiastical 
organizations. 

This was in 1844. In the following year the 
Southern annual conferences met in convention, in 
pursuance of the Plan of Separation, and de- 
termined upon a division, and . . . consti- 
tuted a separate ecclesiastical connection, based 
upon the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, . . . known by the name of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

The division of the Church, as originally con- 
stituted, thus became complete, and, from this 
time, two separate and distinct organizations have 
taken the place of the one previously existing. 



APPENDIX. 



331 



The Methodist Episcopal Church having been 
thus divided, with the authority, and according to 
the plan of the General Conference, it is claimed 
on the part of the complainants, who represent the 
traveling preachers in the Church, South, that they 
are entitled to their share of the capital stock and 
profits of the Book Concern; and that the with- 
holding of it from them is a violation of the fun- 
damental law prescribed by the founders, and con- 
sequently of the trust upon which it was placed in 
the hands of the defendants. 

The principal answer set up to this claim is, 
that, according to the original constitution and 
appropriation of the fund, the beneficiaries must be 
traveling preachers, or the widows and orphans of 
traveling preachers, in connection with the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, as organized and estab- 
lished in the United States at the time of the 
foundation of the fund ; and that, as the complain- 
ants and those they represent are not shown to be 
traveling preachers in that connection, but traveling 
preachers in connection with a different ecclesias- 
tical organization, they have forfeited their right, 
and are no longer within the description of its 
beneficiaries. 

This argument, we apprehend, if it proves any 
thing, proves too much; for, if sound, the neces- 
sary consequence is that the beneficiaries connected 
with the Church, North, as well as South, have 
forfeited their right to the fund. It can no more 
be affirmed, either in point of fact or of law, that 
they are the traveling preachers in connection with 



332 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



the Methodist Church as originally constituted, 
since the division, than those in connection with 
the Church, South. Their organization covers but 
about half of the territory embraced within that 
of the former Church, and includes within it but a 
little over two-thirds of the traveling preachers. 
Their General Conference is not the General Con- 
ference of the old Church, nor does it represent 
the interest, or possess territorially the authority, 
of the same ; nor are they the body under whose 
care this fund was placed by its founders. It may 
be admitted that, within the restricted limits, the 
organization and authority are the same as the 
former Church. But the same is equally true in 
respect to the organization of the Church, South. 

Assuming, therefore, that this argument is well 
founded, the consequence is that all the beneficiaries 
of the fund, whether in the Southern or Northern 
division, are deprived of any right to a distribu- 
tion, not being in a condition to bring themselves 
within the description of persons for whose benefit 
it was established ; in which event the foundation 
of the fund would become broken up, and the 
capital revert to the original proprietors, a result that 
would differ very little in its effect from that sought 
to be produced by the complainants in their bill. 

It is insisted that the General Conference of 
1844 possessed no power to divide the Methodist 
Episcopal Church as then organized, or to consent 
to such division ; and hence, that the organization 
of the Church, South, was without authority, and 
the traveling preachers within it separated from an 



APPENDIX. 



333 



ecclesiastical connection which is essential to en- 
able them to participate as beneficiaries. Even if 
this were admitted, we do not perceive that it 
would change the relative position and rights of 
the traveling preachers within the divisions North 
and South, from that which we have just endeav- 
ored to explain. If the division under the direc- 
tion of the General Conference has been made 
without the proper authority, and for that reason 
the traveling preachers within the Southern division 
are wrongfully separated from their connection with 
the Church, and thereby have lost the character of 
beneficiaries, those within the Northern division 
are equally wrongfully separated from that connec- 
tion, as both divisions have been brought into exist- 
ence by the same authority. The same consequences 
would follow in respect to them that is imputable 
to the traveling preachers of the other division, and 
hence each would be obliged to fall back upon 
their rights as original proprietors of he fund. 

But we do not agree that this division was made 
without proper authority. On the contrary, we 
entertain no doubt that the General Conference 
of 1844 was competent to make it ; and that each 
division of the Church, under the separate organ- 
ization, is just as legitimate, and can claim as high 
a sanction, ecclesiastical and temporal, as the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, first founded in the 
United States. The same authority which founded 
that Church in 1784 has divided it, and established 
two separate and independent organizations, occu- 
pying the place of the old one. . . . 



334 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



In 1820, they set off to the British Conference 
of Wesleyan Methodists the several circuits and 
societies in Lower Canada. And in 1828, they 
separated the annual conference in Upper Canada 
from their jurisdiction and erected the same into a 
distinct and independent Church. These instances, 
together with the present division in 1844, furnish 
evidence of the opinions of the eminent and 
experienced men of this Church in these several 
conferences, of the power claimed, which, if the 
question was otherwise doubtful, should be re- 
garded as decisive in favor of it. We will add, 
that all the Northern bishops, five in number, in 
council in July, 1845, acting under the Plan of 
Separation, regarded it as of binding obligation, 
and conformed their action accordingly. 

The change of this [sixth restrictive] article was 
not made a condition of division. That depended 
alone upon the decision of the Southern Con- 
ferences. 

The division of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
. . . carried with it, as a matter of law, a 
division of the common property belonging to the 
ecclesiastical organization, and especially of the 
property in this Book Concern, which belonged to 
the traveling preachers. . . . 

It has been argued that . . . the division 
of the property of the Book Concern was made to 
depend upon the vote of the annual conferences to 
change the sixth restrictive rule. . . . We do 
not so understand the Plan of Separation. . . . 
The removal of this limitation is not a condition 



APPENDIX, 



335 



to the right of the Church, South, to its share in 
the property, but is a step taken in order to enable 
the General Conference to complete the division of 
the property. . . . Nothing short of an agree- 
ment or stipulation of the Church, South, to give 
up their share of it, could preclude the assertion of 
their right, and it is quite clear, no such agreement 
or stipulation is to be found in the Plan of Separa- 
tion. The contrary intent is manifest from a peru- 
sal of it. 

Without pursuing the case further, our conclu- 
sion is, that the complainants, and those they rep- 
resent, are entitled to their share of the property 
in this Book Concern. And the proper decree will 
be entered to carry this decision into effect. 

[Here follows a long decree comprising the de- 
tails for final settlement, etc., — all the judges 
assenting. 

N. B. — The Supreme Court fixes the meaning 
of the words '"old Church " — the Church before 
the division.] 

VIII. 

FRATERNAL RELATIONS. 

Report of Committee on Fraternal Relations with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church — General Conference, 
Louisville, 1874. 

The committee, to whom was referred the mat- 
ter of fraternal greetings conveyed to this General 
Conference by delegates duly commissioned from 
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, respectfully report: 



336 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



We have considered the action of the General 
Conference of that Church, at its session in Brook- 
lyn, New York, May, 1872, and which is partially 
incorporated in the certificate of the delegates, in 
the following terms, to wit: 

"To place ourselves in the truly fraternal re- 
lations toward our Southern brethren which the 
sentiments of our people demand, and to prepare 
the way for the opening of formal fraternity with 
them, it is hereby 

"Resolved, That this General Conference will 
appoint a delegation consisting of two ministers and 
one laymen, to convey our fraternal greetings to 
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, at its next ensuing session." 

On Friday, May 8th, this delegation, consisting 
of the Rev. Dr. Albert S. Hunt, the Rev. Dr. 
Charles H. Fowler, and General Clinton B. Fisk, 
having announced their presence, were formally 
received, and their communications heard by the 
conference. 

It is with pleasure that we bear testimony to 
the distinguished ability, and to the eloquent and 
courteous manner in which these Christian brethren 
discharged their trust. Their utterances warmed 
our hearts. Their touching allusions to the com- 
mon heritage of Methodist history, to our oneness 
of doctrines, polity, and usage, and their calling 
to mind the great work in which we are both 
engaged for the extension of the kingdom of 
their Lord and ours, stirred within us precious 
memories. 



APPENDIX. 



337 



We are called upon, by the terms of the action 
of their General Conference, to consider measures 
necessary ' ' to prepare the way for the opening of 
formal fraternity. " Every transaction and utterance 
of our past history pledges us to regard favorably, 
and to meet promptly, this initial response to our 
long-expressed desire. 

It is admissible to review briefly what has been 
done, or attempted, by us in this direction. Our 
General Conference of 1846, 

"Resolved, By a rising and unanimous vote, that 
Dr. Lovick Pierce be, and is hereby, delegated to visit 
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, to be held at Pittsburg, May 1, 1848, to 
tender to that body the Christian regards and salu- 
tations of the General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South." In pursuance of this 
action Dr. Pierce, duly commissioned, was present 
at the seat of the General Conference of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and by a note courteously 
advised them of his errand. The answer of that 
body was a unanimous vote declaring that "there 
are serious questions and difficulties existing be- 
tween the two bodies and they did "not consider 
it proper, at present, to enter into fraternal relations 
with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. " 
Had our delegate been received and allowed a hear- 
ing, a more definite understanding might have been 
obtained of those ' ' serious questions and difficul- 
ties," and the result, we think, would have been in 
the interest of peace. He closed his letter to the 
General Conference, on receiving a copy of its 

29 



338 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



action, in these words: ** You will therefore regard 
this communication as final on the part of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South. She can never 
renew the offer of fraternal relations between the 
two great bodies of Wesleyan Methodists in the 
United States. But the proposition can be re- 
newed at any time, either now or hereafter, by the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. And if ever made 
upon the basis of the Plan of Separation, as adopted 
by the General Conference of 1844, the Church, 
South, will cordially entertain the proposition. " 
He reported the failure of his mission, to the 
General Conference in St. Louis, in 1850, which 
thereupon adopted the following : 

"Resolved, That we steadfastly adhere to the 
ground taken in the last communication of our 
delegate to the General Conference of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, at Pittsburg, in May, 1848, 
to wit : That we can not, under their act of rejec- 
tion and refusal, renew our offer of fraternal rela- 
tions and intercourse ; but will, at all times, enter- 
tain any proposition coming from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church to us, whether it be by written 
communication or delegation, having for its object 
friendly relations, and predicated on the rights 
granted to us by the Plan of Separation adopted 
in New York in 1844." 

Here the matter rested until May, 1869, when 
the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
opened negotiations with our bishops at their an- 
nual meeting in St. Louis, inviting them to "con- 
fer" as to "the propriety, practicability, and 



APPENDIX. 



339 



methods of reunion." Our bishops respectfully 
declined to consider that subject, but invited their 
attention to one having precedence — the cultivation 
of fraternal relations. They suggested the removal 
of the causes of strife ; and this was done in a 
manner and spirit that met the hearty approval of 
the Church. They re-affirmed the position in which 
Dr. Pierce had left the matter, saying : " The words 
of our rejected delegate have been ever since, and 
still are, our words." 

One passage of this correspondence we quote. 
The Northern bishops, in their letter, used these 
words : * 4 That the great cause which led to the 
separation from us of both the Wesleyan Method- 
ists of this country and of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, has passed away." To which the 
Southern bishops replied : " We can not think you 
mean to offend us when you speak of our having 
separated from you, and put us in the same cate- 
gory with a small body of schismatics who were 
always an acknowledged secession. Allow us, in 
all kindness, brethren, to remind you, and to keep 
the important fact of history prominent, that we 
separated from you in no sense in which you did 
not separate from us. The separation was by 
compact, and mutual ; and nearer approaches to 
each other can be conducted, with hope of a suc- 
cessful issue, only on this basis." 

A deputation visited our General Conference 
of 1870, at Memphis, proposing to treat with us, 
in the name of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
on the subject of union. They were received and 



340 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES, 

heard with great respect. But it appeared, upon 
due inquiry, that they were not commissioned to us 
by their General Conference — the only body with 
which we can treat on connectional interests. 
Nevertheless, the General Conference referred their 
communication to a committee, whose report, 
unanimously adopted, contained these resolutions: 

"Resolved, That the action of our bishops in 
their last annual meeting in St. Louis, in response 
to the message of the bishops of the , Methodist 
Episcopal Church, has the full indorsement of this 
General Conference, and accurately defines our po- 
sition in reference to any overtures which may 
proceed from that Church, having in them an offi- 
cial and proper recognition of this body. 

* 1 Resolved, moreover, That if this distinguished 
commission were fully clothed with authority to 
treat with us for union, it is the judgment of this 
conference that the true interests of the Church of 
Christ require and demand the maintenance of our 
separate and distinct organization. 

"Resolved, That we tender to the Rev. Bishop 
E. S. Janes and the Rev. W. L. Harris, D. D., 
the members of the commission now with us, our 
high regards as brethren beloved in the Lord, and 
express our desire that the day may soon come 
when proper Christian sentiments and fraternal re- 
lations between the two great branches of North- 
ern and Southern Methodism shall be permanently 
established. " 

Thus stood the case when the distinguished 
delegates of the Methodist Episcopal Church, duly 



APPEXD1X, 



341 



authorized by their General Conference of 1872, 
brought us their fraternal greetings. We hail them 
with pleasure, and embrace the opportunity at 
length afforded us of entering into negotiations to 
secure tranquillity and fellowship to our alienated 
communions upon a permanent basis, and alike 
honorable to all." 

We deem it proper, for the attainment of the 
object sought, to guard against all misapprehension. 
Organic union is not involved in fraternity. In our 
view of the subject, the reasons for the separate 
existence of these two branches of Methodism are 
such as to make corporate union undesirable and 
impracticable. The events and experiences of the 
last thirty years have confirmed us in the conviction 
that such a consummation is demanded by neither 
reason nor charity. We believe that each Church 
can do its work and fulfill its mission most effect- 
ively by maintaining an independent organization. 

The causes which led to the division, in 1844, 
upon a plan of separation mutually agreed upon, 
have not disappeared. Some of them exist in their 
original form and force, and others have been modi- 
fied, but not diminished. 

The size of the connection, and the extent of terri- 
tory covered by it, had produced on some thought- 
ful minds before the events of 1844 the impression 
that separation would be convenient, if not other- 
wise advantageous. The General Conference, upon 
any proper basis of representation, was becoming 
too unwieldy for the ends originally designed. If 
this reason was of force then, it is more conclusive 



342 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



now. The membership of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, South, exceeds six hundred thousand ; 
our Northern brethren have more than twice that 
number. Our General Conference is now com- 
posed of nearly three hundred ministers and lay- 
men ; theirs is proportionately larger. 

It will be remembered that the first formal 
deliverance of the Southern representatives, in the 
united General Conference, was a protest against 
the power claimed for, and exercised by, that high- 
est judicatory of the Church. The Northern mem- 
bers, who were a controlling majority, claimed 
for it prerogatives which seemed to us both dan- 
gerous and unconstitutional. In their view the 
General Conference is supreme. Although re- 
stricted in the exercise of its powers by a constitu- 
tion it is the judge of the restrictions, and is thus 
practically unlimited. In our view, the General 
Conference is a body of limited powers. It can 
not absorb the functions of other and co-ordinate 
branches of the Church government, and there 
are methods by which all constitutional questions 
may be brought to a satisfactory issue. Each 
Church still maintains its own construction of these 
fundamental questions. They are not theoretical 
merely/ but very practical in their bearing. Were 
the two Methodisms organically united, it would 
lead to serious collisions, and expose the minority 
to harassing legislation, if not to oppression. 

The existence of slavery in the Southern States 
furnished an occasion, with its connected ques- 
tions, fruitful of disturbance ; and to this the 



APPENDIX. 



343 



division has been mainly attributed. The position 
of Southern Methodism on that subject was Scrip- 
tural. Our opinions have undergone no change. 
We hold ourselves in readiness to carry the Gospel 
to the bond and to the free. Missions to the 
slaves constituted a large part of our work. Many 
of our ministers labored in this field, and much of 
our means was expended on it. These labors were 
eminently owned of God. At the beginning of the 
late war a quarter of a million of negroes were in 
the communion of our Church, and thousands of 
their children were receiving catechetical instruc- 
tion. The societies organized in the Southern 
States during the last ten years by our Northern 
brethren, and the members which swell their sta- 
tistics, are made up largely of those who, in 
slavery, had been converted by our instrumentality. 
The colored preachers, exhorters, and class-leaders, 
by whom they have principally carried on their 
Southern work, and some of whom have been 
counted worthy of seats in their Annual and Gen- 
eral Conferences, were Christianized and trained 
under our ministry in other days. Following the 
indications of Providence, we have, without aban- 
doning this work, adapted our methods to the 
changed condition of the descendants of the African 
race in the midst of us. Many of them have been 
drawn away from us by appliances that we were 
not prepared to counteract; but a remnant re- 
mained. At their request we have set off our col- 
ored members into an independent ecclesiastical 
body, with our own creed and polity. We have 



344 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



turned over to them the title and possession of the 
Church property, formerly held by us for their 
use and benefit, and we propose to continue to 
them such moral and material aid as we are able 
to give. 

This method has met with encouraging success. 
We believe it to be the best for both races. They 
have now fifteen annual conferences, four bishops, 
six hundred and seven traveling preachers, five 
hundred and eighteen local preachers, seventy-four 
thousand and seven hundred and ninety-nine mem- 
bers, five hundred and thirty-five Sunday-schools, 
one thousand one hundred and two Sunday-school 
teachers, and forty-nine thousand nine hundred and 
fifty-five Sunday-school scholars. They dwell in 
the land side by side with us, and between them 
and us exist the kindest relations. 

Our Northern brethren have pursued a different 
plan, and they seem to be committed to it by 
honest and conscientious convictions. They have 
mixed conferences, mixed congregations, and mixed 
schools. We do not ask them to adopt our plan. 
We could not adopt theirs. 

We refer to these things in order that our 
position may not be attributed by any to preju- 
dice, resentment, or other motives unworthy of 
Christians. 

But whilst we are clear and final in our declara- 
tions against the union of the two Methodisms, we 
welcome measures looking to the removal of obsta- 
cles in the way to amity and peace. The exist- 
ence of these obstacles is generally known, and 



APPENDIX, 



345 



they are frankly recognized in the addresses of the 
delegates sent to us. 

Our brethren of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
will, we trust, appreciate our uniform and frequent 
reference to the Plan of Separation. No adjust- 
ment can be considered by us that ignores it. By 
that plan we hold all our church-houses, ceme- 
teries, school buildings, and other property ac- 
quired before the division. Under it we claimed 
and recovered our portion of the common fund in 
the Book Concerns at New York and Cincinnati. 

When its validity was denied by our Northern 
brethren, and the share of the common property 
inuring to us under it was withheld by them, the 
Plan of Separation was taken for ultimate adjudi- 
cation to the Supreme Court of the United States, 
and that highest civil tribunal, without a dissenting 
voice, affirmed its validity, and our rights under it. 

When the representatives of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church asserted before that tribunal that 
they were the original Church, and that we were 
a secession, the court said : 

4 'It can no more be affirmed, either in point 
of fact or law, that they are the traveling preachers 
in connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
as originally constituted, since the division, than 
of those in connection with the Church, South. 
Their organization covers but about half of the ter- 
ritory embraced within that of the former Church, 
and includes within it but a little more than two- 
thirds of the traveling preachers. Their General 
Conference is not the General Conference of the 



346 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



old Church, nor does it represent the interest or 
possess territorially the authority of the same; nor 
are they the body under whose care this fund was 
placed by its founders. It may be admitted that, 
within the restricted limits, the organization and 
authority are the same as the former Church ; but 
the same is equally true in respect to the organiza- 
tion of the Church, South." 

When the same parties tried to set aside the 
Plan of Separation, on the ground that it was made 
without proper authority, the court said: 

''But we do not agree that this division was 
made without proper authority. On the contrary, 
we entertain no doubt that the General Con- 
ference of 1844 was competent to make it; and 
that each division of the Church, under the sep- 
arate organization, is just as legitimate, and can 
claim as high a sanction, ecclesiastical and tem- 
poral, as the Methodist Episcopal Church first 
founded in the United States. v The same authority 
which first founded that Church in 1784 has di- 
vided it, and established two separate and inde- 
pendent organizations, occupying the place of the 
old one." 

However others may regard that instrument, 
the Plan of Separation is too important in its ap- 
plication to our status and security to be lightly 
esteemed by us. If it should be said that its pro- 
visions touching territorial limits have been violated 
by both parties, we have this to say : we are ready 
to confer with our Northern brethren on that point. 
A joint commission having this feature of the com- 



APPENDIX. 



347 



pact under revision might reach a solution mutually 
satisfactory. 

Measures preparatory to a formal fraternity 
would be defective that leave out of view questions 
in dispute between the Methodist Episcopal Church 
and ourselves. These questions relate to the course 
pursued by some of their accredited agents whilst 
prosecuting their work in the South, and to prop- 
erty which has been taken and held by them to 
this day against our protest and remonstrance. 
Although feeling ourselves sorely aggrieved in these 
things, we stand ready to meet our brethren of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in the spirit of 
Christian candor, and to compose all differences 
upon the principles of justice and equity. 

It is to be regretted that the honored represen- 
tatives who bore fraternal greetings to us were 
not empowered also to enter upon a settlement of 
these vexed questions. We are prepared to take 
advanced steps in this direction, and, waiving any 
considerations which might justify a greater reserve, 
we will not only appoint a delegation to return the 
greetings so gracefully conveyed to us from the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, but we will also pro- 
vide for a commission to meet a similar commission 
from that Church for the purpose of settling dis- 
turbing questions. 

Open and righteous treatment of all causes of 
complaint will furnish the only solid ground upon 
which we can meet. Relations of amity are, with 
special emphasis, demanded between bodies so near 
akin. We be brethren ; to the realization of this, 



348 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



the families of Methodism are called by the move- 
ments of the times. The attractive power of the 
cross is working mightily. The Christian elements 
in the world are all astir in their search for each 
other. Christian hearts are crying to each other 
across vast spaces, and longing for fellowship. The 
heart of Southern Methodism being in full accord 
with these sentiments, your committee submit the 
following resolutions for adoption : — 

"Resolved, That this General Conference has 
received with pleasure the fraternal greetings of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, conveyed to us by 
their delegates, and that our conference of bishops 
be, and are hereby, authorized to appoint a dele- 
gation, consisting of two ministers and one layman, 
to bear our Christian salutations to their next ensu- 
ing General Conference. 

"Resolved, That, in order to remove all obsta- 
cles to formal fraternity between the two Churches, 
our College of Bishops is authorized to appoint a 
commission, consisting of three ministers and two 
laymen, to meet a similar commission authorized 
by the General Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, and to adjust all existing difficulties." 

IX. 

CAPE MAY COMMISSION— THEIR ADDRESS. 

To the Bishops, the Ministers, and the Members, of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. 

Dear Fathers and Brethren: — We, the Com- 
missioners appointed by authority of the General 
Conferences, respectively, of the above-named 



APPENDIX. 



349 



Churches, to remove all obstacles to a formal fra- 
ternity, and to adjust all existing difficulties be- 
tween them, deem it proper, in advance of our 
report to the General Conferences of our respective 
Churches, to communicate to you, in general terms, 
the result of the recent harmonious session of our 
Joint Commission. 

Pursuant to previous appointment, we convened 
at Cape May, N. J., on the 16th day of August, 
1876, 'and were favored by the attendance of all 
the members of both Boards of Commissioners. 

After a written communication from the Com- 
missioners of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, was received and answered by the Commis- 
sioners of the Methodist Episcopal Church, both 
Boards met in joint session, the labors of which 
were continued during seven days. 

We have had a full and free conference and 
interchange of views respecting the important mat- 
ters that claimed our united consideration. 

If any in the Churches entertained the fear, 
previous to our meeting, that we could not obtain 
complete harmony of sentiment touching the mo- 
mentous questions to be determined, they will be 
rejoiced to learn that after having given due atten- 
tion to all questions involved in the proper con- 
struction of a platform of complete fraternity 
between the two great branches of Episcopal 
Methodism in the United States, we have arrived 
at a settlement of every matter affecting, as we 
suppose, the principles of a lasting and cordial 
adjustment. 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



We have the satisfaction to declare that our 
aspirations for harmony of views on vital points 
have been realized. By Divine guidance, as we 
trust, we have been able, after a frank interchange 
of views, and prayerful endeavor, to harmonize all 
differences and to arrive at the desired consumma- 
tion of a unanimous agreement of complete frater- 
nity. We believe that no principle of honor, on 
either side, has been invaded. We struck the key- 
note of brotherly love till it sounded high and clear, 
and so have been enabled to reach the elements 
of perfect harmony. No divergence of sentiment 
mars the complete unanimity of the joint commis- 
sion touching the essential principles of fraterni- 
zation. 

At the beginning of our consultations one great 
question seemed to overshadow all others. It con- 
cerns the relation of the two Churches to each 
other and to Episcopal Methodism. To this im- 
portant matter our most earnest thought and 
prayerful deliberation were first directed, and the 
result attained occasioned the interchange of re- 
joicing congratulations between the members of 
the joint commission. We adopted, without a dis- 
senting voice, the following declaration and basis 
of fraternity: 

As to the status of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, and their co-ordinate relation as legitimate 
branches of Episcopal Methodism, each of said 
Churches is a legitimate branch of Episcopal Meth- 
odism in the United States, having a common ori- 



APPENDIX. 



351 



gin in the Methodist Episcopal Church organized 
in 1784, and since the organization of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, South, was consummated in 
1845, by the voluntary exercise of the right of the 
Southern annual conferences and ministers and 
members to adhere to that communion, it has been 
an evangelical Church reared on Scriptural founda- 
tions, and her ministers and members, with those t 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, have consti- 
tuted one Methodist family, though in distinct 
ecclesiastical connections. 

It was incumbent on us next to consider the 
question concerning conflicting claims to Church 
property, and some special cases that could not 
conveniently be referred to the operation of a gen- 
eral rule. There were two principal questions to 
be considered with regard to Church property in 
dispute between local societies of the two Churches: 
first, as to the legal ownership of said property ; 
and second, as to whether it will consist with strict 
equity or promote Christian harmony or the cause 
of religion to dispossess those societies now using 
Church property which was originally intended for 
their use and occupancy, and of which they have 
acquired possession, though they may have lost 
legal title to it by their transfer from one Church to 
the other. We have considered the papers in all 
cases that have been brought to our notice. These 
arose in the following States : Virginia, West Vir- 
ginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Louisiana, North 
Carolina, and South Carolina. 

In respect to some of these cases, we have 



352 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



given particular directions, but for all other cases 
the joint commission unanimously adopted the fol- 
lowing rules for the adjustment of adverse claims 
to Church property : 

Rule i. In cases not adjudicated by the joint 
commission, any society of either Church, consti- 
tuted according to its Discipline, now occupying 
the Church property, shall remain in possession 
thereof; provided that if there is now in the same 
place a society of more members attached to the 
other Church, and which has hitherto claimed the 
use of the property, the latter shall be entitled to 
possession. 

Rule 2. Forasmuch as we have no power to 
annul decisions respecting Church property made 
by the State courts, the joint commission ordain in 
respect thereof : 

(1.) In cases in which such a decision has been 
made, or in which there exists an agreement, the 
same shall be carried out in good faith. 

(2.) In communities where there are two socie- 
ties, one belonging to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and the other to the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, South, which have adversely claimed 
the Church property, it is recommended that 
without delay they amicably compose their dif- 
ferences, irrespective of the strict legal title, and 
settle the same according to Christian principles, 
the equities of the particular case, and, so far as 
practicable, according to the principle of the afore- 
going rule ; but if such settlement can not be speedily 
made, then the question shall be referred for equi- 



APPENDIX. 



353 



table decision to three arbitrators, one to be chosen 
by each claimant from their respective societies, 
and the two thus chosen shall select a third person 
not connected with either of said Churches, and 
the decision of any two of them shall be final ; and, 

(3.) That in communities in which there is but 
one society, Rule 1 shall be faithfully observed in 
the interest of peace and fraternity. 

Rule 3. Whenever necessary to carry the fore- 
going rules into effect, the legal title to Church 
property shall be accordingly transferred. 

Rule 4. These rules shall take effect immedi- 
ately. 

In order to further promote the peaceful re- 
sults contemplated by this joint commission, and 
to remove as far as may be all occasion, and 
especially to forestall all further occasion for hos- 
tility between the two Churches, we recommend to 
the members of both, as a wise rule of settlement 
where property is in contest, and one or both are 
weak, that they compose their differences by 
uniting in the same communion, and in all cases 
that the ministers and members recognize each 
other in all the relations of fraternity, and as 
possessed of ecclesiastical rights and privileges of 
equal dignity and validity. They should each re- 
ceive from the other ministers and members in 
good standing with the same alacrity and credit as 
if coming from their own Church, and, without in- 
terference with each other's institutions or missions, 
they should, nevertheless, co-operate in all Christian 
enterprises. It is not to be supposed in respect to 

30 



354 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



some mere matters of opinion that all ministers and 
members in either Church will be in accord, but 
we trust and believe that a spirit of fellowship and 
mutual regard will pervade the reconciled ranks of 
the entire ministry and membership of both 
Churches. We believe, also, that their supreme 
allegiance to the cause of the Great Master will 
triumph over all variation of personal sentiment, 
and will soon exalt the claims of brotherly affec- 
tion, that from this auspicious hour a new epoch 
in Methodism will begin its brighter history, so 
that we shall know no unfraternal Methodism in 
the United States, or even in the wide world. To 
all we commend the wise counsels given in 1820 
to missionaries and members of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and of the Wesleyan connection 
in the Canadas, by Bishop McKendree and the 
Wesleyan committee, namely: 

''Feel that you are one with your brethren, 
embarked in the same great cause, and eminently of 
the same religious family; and if any warm spirits 
rise up and trouble you, remember that you are to 
act on the principles now sanctioned and avowed 
by the two connections, and not upon local preju- 
dices." 

We can not restrain the expression of our 
united congratulations to both of the great Churches 
whose commissions we have executed in uniting 
between them the broken cords of affectionate and 
brotherly fraternization. Henceforth they may 
hail each other as from the auxiliary ranks of one 
great army. The only differences they will foster 



APPENDIX. 



355 



will be those friendly rivalries that spring from 
earnest endeavors to further to the utmost the 
triumphs of the Gospel of peace. Whatever prog- 
ress is made by the one Church, or by the other, 
will occasion general joy. They will rejoice in each 
other's success as a common good; and, amid the 
thousand glorious memories of Methodism, they 
will go forward devoted to their one work of spread- 
ing Scriptural holiness over these lands. 

Two by two the apostles began the promulga- 
tion of Christianity in the world. They were com- 
panion evangelists, distinct in their individuality; 
but they were, at the same time, one in spirit, 
purpose and fellowship. Their itinerant, successors 
in the chief Churches of American Methodism, in 
restored fraternity, will vie with each other to 
wave the banner of the cross in this Western 
World, and henceforth will proclaim that these 
Churches are one in spirit, one in purpose, one in 
fellowship. 

Astronomers tell us of dual-stars, revolving to- 
gether in mutual relation and harmony, whose 
differing colors are so much the complement of 
each other as to produce a pure white light of ex- 
ceeding brilliancy. The dual Churches of Amer- 
ican Methodism will henceforth revolve in mutual 
fellowship and harmony, so much the complement 
of one another, as together to produce the pure 
and blended light of Christian charity and fraternal 
love. These fraternized Churches have no further 
occasion for sectional disputes or acrimonious dif- 
ferences; they may henceforth remember their com- 



356 



THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



mon origin, pursue their fruit-bearing work, and re- 
joice in their own and each other's success, while 
engaged in the same great mission of converting 
the world to Christ. 

Distinctive features of profession and polity are 
bound up with the name of Episcopal Methodism. 
That form of Christian propagandism and ecclesi- 
astical economy has peculiar elements of power 
and qualities of attraction that commend its effi- 
ciency in proclaiming a pure Gospel to the world. 
Its cardinal doctrines of free salvation by faith, and 
of the witness of the Spirit, its Scriptural articles of 
Christian belief, its primitive system of Church 
government, its sententious demand of those who 
would join its societies, its itinerant plan of preach- 
ing the Gospel, its Wesleyan simplicity and ortho- 
doxy, its urgency of the practice of a holy life, 
its liberal and systematic benevolence, its support 
of educational institutions, its promotion of Sab- 
bath-school instruction, its vigilant care of the de- 
serving poor, its provision for superannuated min- 
isters, their widows and children, its world-wide 
missionary enterprise, and the general activity in 
the dissemination of Gospel truth, are one and the 
same in the Methodist Episcopal Church and in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 

Far away in the dark portions of the earth to 
which their missionaries have penetrated, a divine 
light is breaking on the long night of paganism. 
For the elevation of humanity, it is more than the 
wand of an enchanter. There, as well as here, 
Methodist doctrines and usages wear their own 



APPENDIX. 



357 



peculiar and heaven-blessed distinctiveness, and 
seem to presage the dawn of that era of gladness 
when the claims of universal brotherhood will com- 
mingle with the full glory of the millennium. Epis- 
copal Methodism was never more strong and in- 
fluential, and never appeared to feel more the 
quickening impulse of its glorious destiny, than it 
does at the present day. 

It is eminently fit, therefore, that in its native 
realm and wide-extended home in these United 
States, whence its spirit and power go forth like 
swelling anthems of gladness to bless mankind, it 
should bear along the blessed sweetness of fraternal 
harmony. Then will its cadences roll down the 
ages, enriched with the true spirit of the Gospel; 
for the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then 
peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of 
mercy and good fruits, without partiality and with- 
out hypocrisy ; and the fruit of righteousness is 
sown in peace of them that make peace. 

The flowing streams of Gospel truth, issuing 
from the depths of their sacred fountains in the 
Holy Scriptures, as they are borne to thirsty thou- 
sands through the instrumentality of a called and 
qualified ministry, and made effectual to salvation 
by the mighty working of divine power, will in- 
crease their assuaging freshness when all the itiner- 
ant ranks of Episcopal Methodism shall move 
together in fraternal concord. Then, as chosen 
vessels of grace, may they bear the living water of 
salvation to all the world. Contemplating the pros- 
pect of complete fraternity among them, we are led 



358 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



to look back to those inspiring scenes of primitive 
times when the company of the disciples were of 
one heart and mind, steadfast in the Apostles' doc- 
trine and fellowship, having all things common, 
continuing daily in the temple, praising God, and 
having favor with all the people. 

In completing the work to which we were as- 
signed by the highest judicatories of the two great 
branches of Episcopal Methodism in the United 
States, we pour forth our united prayer for these 
kindred Churches in the language which inspiration 
has prepared for us, and say: May the Lord of 
peace himself give you peace always, by all means. 

Now unto Him that is able to keep us from fall- 
ing, and to present us faultless before the presence 
of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only-wise 
God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion 
and power, both now and forever. Amen. 

In the bonds of the Gospel of peace, 
Your brethren and servants, 
Morris D'C. Crawford, Clinton B. Fisk, 
Enoch L. Fancher, John P. Newman. 

Erasmus Q. Fuller, 

Commissioners of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Edward H. Myers, David Clopton, 

Rob't K. Hargrove, Robert B. Vance. 
Thomas M. Finney, 
Commissioners of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. 

Cape May, N. J., August 23, 1876. 

("The Joint Commission met at Cape May, 
August 17-23, 1876, and after prayerful and patient 



APPENDIX. 



359 



deliberation unanimously agreed upon terms, which 
were accepted as a finality by the ensuing 
General Conferences of both Churches." — 
Bishop McTyeires "History of Methodism" p. 683.) 



POPULATION, NORTH AND SOUTH. 

Reference was made in the body of this work 
to the inequality of population North and South. 
Let us compare State with State, as to the num- 
ber of inhabitants per square mile as shown by the 
census of 1880 : 

Maine, 21 ; Florida, 5. 

Massachusetts, 221; South Carolina, 33. 

Connecticut, 128; Georgia, 26. 

Rhode Island, 254; Louisiana, 20. 

New Hampshire, 38 ; Texas, 6. 

Vermont, 36; Arkansas, 15. 

New York, 106; Tennessee, 36. 

Pennyslvania, 95 ; Mississippi, 24. 

Ohio, 78; Virginia, 37. 

Indiana, 55 ; North Carolina, 28. 

Illinois, 55; Alabama, 24. 

The population North is almost a unit in pref- 
erence of the Northern, rather than the Southern 
Church ; while in the South one-half the popula- 
tion, including the negroes, also prefer the North- 
ern Branch; that is, taking the whole country, 
more than three-fourths of the people decide as 
against the Southern Church. The tide of North- 
ern migration will make the disparity greater every 



360 THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES. 



year, till in the end, the Southern Church must be 
overwhelmed. fi A prudent man foreseeth the evil, 
and hide th himself." 

XI. 

Some ask why the author does not print this 
book at the publishing house of his own Church, 
at Nashville. The reply is, not a complaint about 
any thing connected with the printing of his other 
book at that house — it was well done — but the fact 
that the Cincinnati Book Concern gives a better 
bid — much cheaper in figures and earlier in date. 
Then, Cincinnati is nearer the center of our Nation, 
and has better facilities for scattering good seed 
o'er the land. 



t 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process- 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



